Celebrate the award-winning work of local youth artists. Stop by the Wyoming Game and Fish Headquarters in February to see the 2019 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wyoming Junior Duck Stamp Program’s top-placing entries on display. 

Wyoming students in kindergarten up to 12th grade submitted 211 art entries. Submitted artwork featuring the following native North American species: whistling ducks, swans, geese, dabbling ducks, diving ducks, sea ducks, mergansers, stiff tails or Hawaiian ducks.
Wyoming’s 2019 Best of Show artwork is a watercolor rendition of a pair of northern pintail drakes, titled “Pintails in Flight” by Brianna Simmons, age 18, of Cody.  

Students were able to include a “conservation message” with their art summarizing what they learned through the program.with their art, which summarizes what they learned through the program. Cydney Brown, age 15, of Cokeville, submitted this year’s winning conservation message: “A future without conservation is like a canvas without paint.”

Simmons’s watercolor of the pintails and Brown’s conservation message both represented Wyoming at the 2019 National Federal Junior Duck Stamp Contest, held last April.

Wyoming’s Junior Duck Stamp Program also awards a “Betty Nelson Artistic Promise Award” to the youngest age group, K – 6th grades, to an artist the judges feel exhibits exemplary artistic promise. This year’s Betty Nelson Artistic Promise Award went to Kashton Walker, age 9, of Cokeville for a colored pencil depiction of a harlequin drake.

Annually, a panel of judges selects the national level best of show, which will be used to create the National Junior Duck Stamp. Artwork entries are judged on the basis of original design, anatomical accuracy, artistic composition and suitability for reproduction on a 1” by 1.5” stamp. 

The Junior Duck Stamp is available for $5 at www.duckstamp.com as well as from some U.S. Postal Service locations, National Wildlife Refuges, and through the Amplex Corporation. Proceeds from the sale of the stamps support conservation education and provide awards and scholarships for students, teachers and schools participating in the Junior Duck Stamp Program.

The Wyoming Junior Duck Stamp Program is sponsored by the Federal Junior Duck Stamp Program, Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge and Wyoming Ducks Unlimited and is made possible through support and participation of local teachers, parents and Wyoming students. For More information on contest rules and educational materials for teachers and supervising adults visit www.fws.gov/refuge/seedskadee/wyjrduck. 

Winner listing:
The contest was judged in four age groups, Group I included Kindergarten through 3rd grade, Group II - 4th grade through 6th grade, Group III - 7th grade through 9th grade, and Group IV - 10th grade through 12th grade.  The following is a list of first, second, and third places, as well as the honorable mentions and recognition for creativity. 

 * Indicates the artwork was recognized by the judges for outstanding creativity through the pose, composition, use of color etc.  Some of the artwork recognized for creativity did not place and are listed after the honorable mentions in each age group.

 Group I (grades K-3):

 
Group II (grades 4-6):

 
Group III (grades 7-9):

 
Group IV (grades 10-12):