VALDOSTA — Artist Leon Colvin says he’s known more for his walking than for his art, and he covers a lot of ground, in life and art. I pass him some mornings in downtown Valdosta on my way to Starbucks, and a short time later, here he comes, headed toward the interstate, a good five miles from where I last saw him.

“I have to stay active because art requires that you sit or stand for long periods of time. Besides, I enjoy what I’m doing, and I want to keep doing it for as long as possible,” he said.

Of the people who actually know he’s an artist, he said, ”Most of them think of me as a bird painter because I’ve done so much of that, and I’ve been doing art now for 30 years, but I’m not limited to that. I paint horses, buffalo, fish, bears, elephants, frogs. I’m a wildlife painter.”

Asked how he first got started painting wildlife, Leon stated, “A man came to my school when I was very young. Roy Harmes was a famous artist from Kentucky, and he painted wildlife scenes that I admired a lot.”

Leon was also inspired by wildlife scenes sold at a furniture store near Chattanooga, Tenn., where he grew up.

I said, “Surely there must be something more in your background that made you pursue wildlife painting with so much enthusiasm, some childhood event

or natural predisposition.”

Leon said, “It’s funny that you mentioned that. When I was 4 or 5 years old, I drew a picture of a duck, Daffy Duck to be exact. Back then the funnies were in full color. So I drew this duck with the funny bill, and my Mom just admired that drawing so much. It was the first time she ever put something of mine on the refrigerator. That’s why I think it’s so important for parents to encourage their little ones. It has a profound effect on them later in life.”

As far as any genetic predisposition that may have something to do with his strong affinity for nature, Leon said his great-great-grandmother was full-blooded Cherokee.

“I used to have this beautiful, wavy hair that probably came from my Cherokee ancestors, but I also inherited my father’s baldness,” he said.

Leon used to do art on commission but decided it wasn’t for him.

“One time this lady commissioned me to do a picture, but I obviously couldn’t draw the way she wanted,” he explained. “It became apparent that she was trying to create her own picture vicariously through me. That was the last time I did that.”

Leon does provide paintings and drawings for some interior designers and furniture stores. Designers call him up looking for a particular subject to suit a room or a certain design they’re working on.

“They’ll say, what have you got in your collection, or else request a specific subject like an egret or something, and then I get to choose how I want to do it,” he said. “They must like what I do because they haven’t complained about anything I send them.

“Painting is very time-consuming. I think you have to enjoy your subject if you’re going to devote that much time to it. I always tell people to buy what they like, even if it doesn’t match their drapes. The drapes will come and go, but good art will remain.”

Asked whether he ever does other kinds of painting, like abstract art, Leon said he does, but he doesn’t like having to explain to people what he was trying to do in a picture.

“What I like about wildlife painting is that when I paint a duck, it’s a duck,” he said. “It is what it is, no explanation necessary. I like abstract art when it’s done well, but that’s a matter of opinion. Also, I have found that abstract paintings don’t sell as well in Valdosta. Maybe in New York they would, but not here.

“When I draw or paint a picture, I always visualize what kind of room or house it will go in.” Mostly he works from photographs, but occasionally he also makes trips to zoos to study his subjects firsthand.

The most prestigious showing of his work was at Callaway Gardens in 1995 and was attended by people from all over, Leon stated.

“The most controversial painting I’ve ever done was of a peregrine falcon and a mallard. The mallard was strewn across a log, and you could see the hawk’s talons grabbing it and the blood running down. What surprised me was that people were turned off by it,” he said, “even though it was something very natural. It wasn’t my intention to shock or disgust people. I just thought it was cool to do a realistic scene. I eventually sold it to a lawyer.

“People want realism, but only up to a point. Mostly what they want is art that’s cute and pretty, where everything is clean and purified.”

Leon said sometimes people are surprised to find out he’s African-American. There’s nothing in his paintings to indicate his ethnicity.

“One time this man called me from a gallery in Thomasville and said, ‘We just love your work.’ We were talking, and I said something about how I think it’s important for black kids to see a black man who does something besides playing basketball or rapping. The phone went blank. He eventually said he’d get back to me but never did.

“My manager is Caucasian,” Leon said, “and it happens all the time when we’re sitting at an art show somewhere that people will come up to him and start asking about the work, and he’ll say, ‘You’ll have to talk to him. He’s the artist.’ And their jaw just drops.”

I posed this question to Leon: “Poets and artists are often portrayed as being obsessed with the subjects of death and love. Do those concepts play a significant role in your art?”

“I think art is a legacy of your life,” he responded. “It’s a visual representation of what I was about and did. It’s like footprints that say: Leon was here.”

Leon’s art is painstaking in detail. Many of the subjects he chooses to paint — buffalo, eagles, horses, flowering plants and trees, and other things — require the utmost care and attention to draw and paint accurately. I made a remark about the eyes of his subjects, and Leon said he learned very early on that the eye is the key to the whole expression of his subject. Each one of his animal subjects seems to express a different emotion.

Leon’s paintings range in size from very large to miniatures. He said in many ways the smaller paintings are much harder to do well.

Even though Leon hasn’t achieved international recognition yet or made millions from his art, he said those things are not a good measure of success.

“My version of success isn’t money or fame. As long as I’m happy and healthy, and enjoy what I do, I feel successful.”