Duck Stamp Entry Wins Richest Prize

WASHINGTON —  A former building contractor’s acrylic painting of a pair of canvasback ducks on Tuesday won the federal duck stamp contest, considered the richest prize in wildlife art.

“I feel like I’m two or three feet off the ground,” said the artist, Bruce Miller of Mound, Minn. “I’m just in a daze. It puts you into an elite group of people. It’s fabulous.”

Miller’s painting will appear on next year’s duck-hunting stamp, sales of which go to preserve wetlands.

First prize is a sheet of stamps signed by Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. The real payoff comes in royalties from limited-edition prints and in the instant fame. Past champions have earned up to $1 million on the prints.