Mountain Home Junior High School student Josie Arp recently won the top prize in the Arkansas Junior Duck Stamp Program. This was the second year in a row that the ninth grader has won top honors in that competition.
Arp’s acrylic rendition of a ruddy duck won her 7th-9th grade age group as well as being named “Best in Show” for the 2021 contest. Out of the selection of North American species, Arp chose to feature ruddy ducks because their unique appearance appealed to her.
Arp’s painting took more than 20 hours and several months to complete. Arp used different reference photos for the background, water and sunset, and a design of her very own for the ruddy duck in order to create her winning piece, titled “Serenity at Sunset.”
Arp, who lives in Mountain Home, has always enjoyed art and taken art classes for the past few years with her teacher, Allison Wiseman of Lakeview.
With her winning duck design, Arp will represent Arkansas in the 2021 National Federal Junior Duck Stamp Contest in Washington, D.C., where a panel of judges will choose three national winners. The national winner will be selected in mid-April and their image will be printed on a stamp to be released in June.
In the 2020 state contest, Arp also won “Best in Show” and went on to represent Arkansas in the National portion of the program, where she placed 17th overall with her mixed media entry of “Geese at Dawn.”
The Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Contest was modeled after the service’s Federal Duck Stamp art competition, using both conservation and design principles to teach waterfowl biology and wetland habitat to K-12 students.
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