Roy Martell Mason’s (1886-1972) firsthand knowledge of wildfowl, shooting and fishing for sport provided themes for the vast majority of his paintings. His mastery of the medium of watercolor enabled him to create landscape and wildlife paintings that were aesthetically appealing to a large audience outside of the sporting community.

The exposure to outdoor life and art were instilled in Roy Mason by his father, Frank E. Mason. The elder Mason was a farmer-turned-engraver who trained his son in the use of rod and gun on frequent outings in New York state and Canada. He also instructed both Roy and his older sister Nina in the techniques of drawing.

A correspondence course from New York was the only formal training for Roy Mason, an artist Who won the gold Medal of Honor of the America Watercolor Society in 1961.

When Frank Mason established a label manufacturing company in the family's hometown of Batavia, New York, Roy Mason went to work making the drawings for his father's engravings. But the younger Mason also painted in watercolor. He entered the Strathmore Watercolor Paper Contest and won third prize, a trip to Puerto Rico. After painting on that island, he resolved to pursue a career as a painter. Roy Mason worked in Philadelphia until 1919 when he returned to Batavia to head the art department of his father's firm. In 1959 he retired and moved to California.

He began to exhibit his paintings with local and national art associations and to produce art work for nationally distributed periodicals. In 1940 he was elected to full membership in the National Academy of Design. During this artist's lifetime, his watercolors were featured in one-man shows in galleries and museums across the United States.