Orca Bates


Orca Bates was the favorite model for artist Jamie Wyeth. He was first painted in late 1989, and numerous times over the next five years. Orca was a "wild child", described by Jamie as "more of a seagull than a person". Orca's parents, Daniel and Amy Bates, had divorced by the time Orca was 12. Both remarried and continued to live on Manana Island, where they were neighbors of Jamie Wyeth. Orca and his younger brother, Kila, split their time between the two households.
Orca currently lives in Pine Island, New York and owns several companies. He married Colleen Dougherty in 2011.
Orca's younger half-brother, Cat Bates, also modeled for Jamie Wyeth in 1995.
Wyeth's paintings of Orca Bates include:
Anderson, Cindy, "A Portrait of Orca Bates", Yankee, Vol. 60, No. 9, Sept. 1996, pp. 54-127

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