Duck stamp entries await seal of approval

If you want to talk duck stamps, look no further than Bill Anderson and Dennis Lebakken.

They are friends, fellow philatelists -- that's stamp collectors to the rest of us -- and connoisseurs of the Federal Duck Stamp art contest, which began in 1949 as a way to pick a stamp for hunters' waterfowl licenses but has become something much, much bigger.

An exhibition of this year's entries opened Friday at the Bloomington Center for the Arts, where a winner will be named a week from today. This is just the fourth time the contest has been held outside of Washington and the first time in Minnesota.

Under its aw-shucks veneer -- any American adult can enter the competition by paying $125 and sticking to requirements on art size and which waterfowl to depict -- the contest is a high-stakes event.

While a decline in the popularity of wildlife art means contest winners aren't necessarily "instant millionaires," as they once were viewed, winning still means wide recognition for an artist. In recent years, more than 1.6 million stamps have been sold annually to hunters and collectors.

In Minnesota, the contest seems to have special resonance. Minnesota has produced 17 winners over the years, more than any other state. Joe Hautman of Plymouth was last year's winner, and 40 of the 270 entries on display in Bloomington were done by Minnesotans.

Having the competition in Minnesota is a delight for Anderson, a Plymouth resident who is president of the Minnesota Federation of Stamp Clubs. His collection of duck stamps goes back to the very first blue-and-white mallard stamp, issued in 1934. In years past he has traveled to Washington to see the competition. Lebakken, who lives in Buffalo, also has all the duck stamps and is a hunter as well. Both are retired biology teachers.

They find it hard to put their fascination for the stamps into words. It has to do with art, lakes, the woods, the birds' beauty, being a Minnesotan. But they are also discriminating admirers of the contest entries.

Composition is important, they said. In their view, it's always good to have a little bit of habitat showing -- some reeds, a field, driftwood, rocks. Buildings may be distracting. In fact, it's risky to include identifiable landmarks, Anderson said, recounting an old controversy about whether one contest was influenced by a judge who was partial to a scene from his home state. The details of the birds' appearance also must be exactly right. A misplaced marking will doom a painting, no matter how beautiful it is.

This year, artists had to choose from five species: brants, northern shovelers, ruddy ducks, Canada geese or long-tailed ducks. The favorite subject appeared to be the Canada goose, with many artists doing stunning portraits of the handsome bird so many of us know best for defecating profusely on golf courses and walking trails. They were posed standing regally amid yellow reeds, flapping their wings in front of a fiery sun ("Too distracting," Anderson said), fighting, flying in front of what appears to be the World Trade Center towers and, in one slightly scary work, flying with open beaks directly at the viewer.

One daring entry was a slightly abstract depiction of a long-tailed duck with what appeared to be sequins on the canvas. ("Won't win," Anderson predicted.) A painting of two Canada geese featured a black lab in the background, which the rules permit. ("A piece with a dog has won," Anderson noted.) There were a couple of black-and-white ink drawings and one very colorful work showing Canada geese flying before what appears to be the old Interstate 35W bridge. ("Won't win," Anderson opined.)

Some of Anderson and Lebakken's quibbles were mild: That duck looks too solitary. That one's too dark. That painting's too busy.

Dozens of the works earned their admiration. There were incredibly detailed, slightly stylized paintings that brought Audubon to mind, paintings so bright and vivid that they looked like photographs and muted water scenes as evocative as the smell of burning leaves in autumn.

"It's all about what catches the judges' eyes," said Lebakken. "I can get it down to 10 or 15, but I don't know how they make a choice after that."

Mary Jane Smetanka • 612-673-7380