Freeport artist Scot Storm has won the 2015 Minnesota migratory waterfowl stamp contest, painting a harlequin duck, the third time Storm has won the annual competition.
The painting will be featured on the 2015 Minnesota "duck" stamp. A total of 23 entries were submitted to the contest sponsored by the DNR. Storm previously won the competition in 2004 with a rendering of a common merganser, and in 2009 with a painting of a common goldeneye.
Placing second was Kurt Kegler; Tyler Maddaus was third; and Nicholas Markell, fourth.
DNR and conservation group judges selected the winning designs.
The $7.50 duck stamp is required of all Minnesota waterfowl hunters ages 18 through 64. Stamp sales generate about $700,000 a year for habitat enhancement projects on state wildlife management areas and shallow lakes.
No prize goes to the winner, but the featured artist retains the right to reproduce and sell his or her painting. Entries must be of an assigned species that breeds in or migrates through Minnesota. Next year it will be the widgeon.
