Skip navigation.

The Official Website of the Department of Fish and Game (DFG)

 
Outdoor Recreation

2010 Waterfowl Stamp Competition

History of Waterfowl Stamp Winners

Massachusetts Waterfowl Stamp An exceptional painting by Janice Sexton of Westport, Massachusetts, of a Canada Goose decoy that was carved by J. Thomas Wilson of Ipswich captured the top honors in the 2010 Massachusetts Waterfowl Stamp competition.

The Waterfowl Stamp competition celebrates both the folk art of decoy-making and excellence in wildlife painting. Entries for this competition must be paintings of decoys by deceased Massachusetts decoy makers, and the resulting paintings offer unique views of these beautiful and fascinating works of art. The winning paintings for each year are reproduced on the Massachusetts Waterfowl Stamp, which is required for anyone hunting waterfowl in the Commonwealth and also is popular with collectors, many of whom have sought the stamps since the program’s inception in 1974. Judging for the 2010 competition was held at the Westborough Field Headquarters of the Division of Fisheries & Wildlife on August 10, 2009.

Janice Sexton was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and moved to the West Coast in her early twenties. She has studied fine art at the University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee), the University of California (Sonoma State), and the University of Nevada (Reno), as well as with several private instructors. Sexton’s work has been honored previously in the Massachusetts Waterfowl Stamp competition, taking second place in 2000 and in 2007, and the Honorable Mention in 1999, 2001, and 2003. Her painting in the 2001 competition depicted a Red-breasted Merganser drake decoy that was also carved by J. Thomas Wilson. She has won numerous awards in juried art shows and competitions nationwide, and has shown her work in both group and solo exhibitions. She has been the recipient of several grants throughout her career, including the Helen Ellis Trust Fund Grant, which was used to create the winning design for Westport, Massachusetts' first town flag since its incorporation in 1787. Prints of the winning 2010 painting will be available to purchase on Sexton’s website, along with many other examples of her original artwork.

Second place in the 2010 competition was awarded to Brian Murillo of Norwalk, Iowa, for his painting of a Goldeneye hen decoy by A. Elmer Crowell of East Harwich. Third place went to Jay B. Jones of Shreveport, Louisiana, for his painting of a Canada Goose decoy by Charles Osgood of Salem.

The entire field of 2010 entries will be on display at the Springfield Science Museum, on the Quadrangle in Springfield, from Friday, September 18, through Sunday, October 4, 2009.

Income generated from the sale of stamps is dedicated to the acquisition and management of wetlands critical to the conservation of migratory birds throughout North America. These same areas provide important habitat to a host of other wetland-dependent species of wildlife as well. The Division’s Waterfowl Stamp program, supported in part by the efforts of Ducks Unlimited, Inc., has generated over $1,000,000 in stamp sales for wetland conservation since 1974 when the program began.