Self-taught wildlife artist making name for himself

Avid outdoorsman Kevin Nelson says he's gone soft. Instead of hunting birds, he'd rather paint them.

The self-taught painter was the winner of the 2011 duck stamp contest sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. His painting of a red-breasted merganser was chosen from the 23 entries for the 2011 Minnesota Migratory Waterfowl Stamp, which must be purchased by all Minnesota waterfowl hunters between the ages of 18 and 64.

The 2010 waterfowl season opened Saturday.

"I've never had a lesson aside from art classes in high school," said Nelson, whose interest in painting developed at the age of 12 when the girlfriend of one of his older brothers gave him a set of oil paints.

Nelson said that as a kid, he was always drawing and always playing outdoors, making wildlife an obvious subject for him. "My dad was a hunter and would take us kids hunting," he said. "I've always had an interest in the stamp program, but I knew I wasn't good enough to compete. I just kept painting and doing wildlife."

As Nelson improved, he gave paintings away -- trading one for an art table -- and eventually sold a few, but not for very much money, he said. He continued to work his day job in a custom cabinet shop and paint nights and weekends. Eventually he got around to considering his work viable to enter in the stamp program.

"Once I got better, I thought maybe I could do this," Nelson said. "I paid my dues, that's for sure."

Migratory fowl stamp winners don't receive a cash prize, but painters get to retain publishing rights. Artists can sell the original and prints. Nelson worked with Hadley House Licensing to make and sell reproductions of his winning pheasant. "I learned the business end of it, which is a lot more work than the painting."

The next year he tried the turkey stamp and got second. "That was the first turkey I had ever painted in my life," he said. He preferred painting ducks, though, so he set his sights on the migratory fowl stamp, which he entered five times, placing second three times before winning.

"This one I will publish myself," Nelson said about his red-breasted merganser, adding that former winning artists are showing him the ropes. Nelson plans to develop a website and reach out to local galleries. In addition to the paintings that have won, Nelson has many more runner-up works he hopes will sell, including the paintings he's submitted for the federal duck stamp contest, which he's entered about five times and has come as close as fifth.

"There is a market for it," Nelson said.

And he doesn't stop at just the paintings: With his experience in custom cabinetry, he said, he can "make frames real easy."