SF painter wins national duck stamp contest — again!

By Ilana DeBare

San Francisco painter Robert Steiner has won the annual contest for the federal Duck Stamp — for the second time — with a beautiful image of a Common Goldeneye.

This means the Richmond district resident’s painting will appear on 2.1 million Duck Stamps, which are issued with hunting licenses.

Regardless of how you feel about hunting, it’s a great honor for a dedicated and talented local bird artist. The S.F. Chronicle ran a really nice profile of Steiner this weekend, and noted that he is one of only three living waterfowl artists to win the federal Duck Stamp twice. He has also won various state duck stamp competitions 83 times, more than any other artist, dead or alive.

Steiner works by photographing ducks at duck clubs near the Sutter Buttes each January, after hunting season is over. From thousands of photos, he develops hundreds of sketches and ultimately two or three paintings each year.

Chronicle reporter Sam Whiting wrote that the “painting of the goldeneye for the federal contest is a composite of five or six photographs of ducks, taking the best feature from each one…. Out of the sunlight, the head of the real bird is black. Its bright green head in the painting is a trick of iridescence, like a rainbow.”

“I’m trying to do for ducks what Vermeer did for Dutch women,” Steiner says. “You can’t win on sheer skill. Your painting really has to stand out, and the way I do that is with extreme contrast of dark and light.”

If you’re not familiar with the Duck Stamp, it is a $15 stamp that is a required purchase with every federal hunting license. It has raised over $800 million since 1934 to preserve 5 million acres of waterfowl habitat  — a major source of land acquisition for many of our national wildlife refuges.

Recently some folks including bird blogger Larry Jordan and wildlife photographer Ingrid Taylar have come up with an innovative proposal for a federal Wildlife Conservation Stamp — a similar revenue stream that would appeal to birders, nature photographers, and others who value wildlife refuges for non-hunting purposes.

Wildlife stamp backers write:

“A 2013 Wildlife Society Bulletin piece states that changing demographics and cultural shifts away from hunting could result in a $14.3 million annual loss to refuges….

“A Federal Wildlife Conservation Stamp would provide a robust, parallel revenue stream for National Wildlife Refuges, preserving habitat and wildlife, while giving non-extractive users a funding tool and a stronger voice in habitat and wildlife decisions on our shared, public lands.”

Congrats to Bob Steiner for his prize-winning goldeneye on this year’s Duck Stamp!

And what do you think? Should we see his images — and those of other talented wildlife artist and photographers — on a similar Wildlife Conservation Stamp someday? Post a comment and let us know!

You can find more information on the Wildlife Conservation Stamp proposal on the organizers’ web site or their Facebook page.

You can see more of Robert Steiner’s work on his web site.