Off the Roost with Wild Turkey & Jim Turlington

A few weeks ago I received a message via our Facebook page from Jim Turlington. Jim’s a wildlife artist, photographer, researcher and commercial art designer who lives in Central Florida where he’s been creating art professionally since 1980. He wanted to share a bourbon-related story with us that involved Wild Turkey. Always up for a good story, I asked Jim to send us more information along with permission to share on the blog. What follows is Jim’s story along with accompanying photos and artwork.

In late January of 2015, Jim Turlington began watching one particular Florida Osceola Wild turkey gobbler in a Central Florida oak hammock. Over a period of three months, observed, photographed and did a small field observation sketch of the gobbler . He even went so far as actually to climb up into the tree that the wild turkey had roosted in and took photos to use as reference for the watercolor painting he wanted to paint . In late April 2015, he finished the watercolor painting which he called ”Off the Roost”.

”In mid-February I took this photo of my ”Off the Roost ” watercolor painting, with a bottle of WILD TURKEY BOURBON that had their new wild turkey art on the label , and I sent a copy to WILD TURKEY BOURBON . Well, they liked it and asked me, if they could use it on their social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, so we got an agreement signed and in early April 2016, it appeared on social media .”

”There was a combination of factors that made this work. First, I have chased after wild turkeys as an artist, photographer, researcher and sportsman since 1971. Second, I owned a small wine grape vineyard for 20 years (1985-2005) in Central Florida, that I built from scratch, where I designed my own wine labels. I had also created wine industry art for a couple of different wineries, so I had a pretty good idea how to approach WILD TURKEY BOURBON about the idea. I also like bourbon, and I know you have got to be creative in your approach to marketing a product, and I have always been one , who looks at non-traditional ways to do that.”

~Jim Turlington, Artist / Photographer

Photo 1 – Artist and Photographer Jim Turlington up in an oak tree where wild turkeys roosted the night before.‌ ‌Photo 2 – Artist /Photographer Jim Turlington with his watercolor painting ”Off the Roost”.‌ ‌Photo 3 – ”Off the Roost” watercolor painting by Jim Turlington – 16 x 20 inches image size.

I hope you agree with me that Jim’s story is pretty cool. He took his talent and passion and found a way to work with one of the world’s most revered bourbon brands. It’s a story that all of us here at Bourbon & Banter can relate to and appreciate.

Congrats Jim on the partnership with Wild Turkey and for following your passion. We raise a glass in your honor. Cheers!