Previous Winners Take the Blue Ribbon in Both Competitions
DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife
Date Posted: Thursday, August 22, 2024
A renowned Delaware wildlife artist and now 11-time Delaware stamp contest winner who added another blue ribbon to his resume and a second-time winner of a state stamp competition have claimed top honors in Delaware’s Waterfowl Stamp and Trout Stamp art contests, the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control announced today. Richard Clifton’s painting of a Canada goose will be featured on the 2025/26 Delaware Waterfowl Stamp. A painting of a brook trout by Dennis Arp of Edison, Neb., was awarded first place and will grace the 2025 Delaware Trout Stamp.
The annual stamp art competition drew 16 entries for the 2025/26 Delaware Waterfowl Stamp and the same number of entries for the 2025 Trout Stamp. The Waterfowl Stamp contest specified that submitted artwork must include the motif of a Canada goose in an agricultural landscape. Trout Stamp artwork entries could depict a rainbow, brown or brook trout.
As the 2025/26 Delaware Waterfowl Stamp winner, Clifton receives a $2,500 cash prize and 150 artist’s proofs of the limited edition print series of his first-place entry. Residing on an historic family farm in the Milford area near Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, Clifton is an avid hunter and self-taught wildlife artist who works in acrylics, with waterfowl among his favorite subjects. He has twice won the federal duck stamp competition, in 2007/08 and 2021/22, that is considered the epitome for wildlife artists. He has painted more than 50 winning duck/waterfowl stamps, including his 11th blue ribbon for Delaware Waterfowl stamp art, and his work has appeared on magazine covers, a commemorative beer stein, and has been engraved on shotguns for Ducks Unlimited, which named him 2018 International Artist of the Year.
As the 2025 Delaware Trout Stamp winner, Arp receives a $250 cash prize and retains the rights to reproduce and sell prints of the stamp artwork. Arp previously won the state’s trout stamp contest in 2021 and came in second place last year. A self-taught artist with a lifelong love of the outdoors and wildlife, Arp painted part time while raising a family but now devotes himself fully to producing wildlife art.
The 2025/26 Delaware Waterfowl Stamp will feature a Canada goose painted by Milford artist Richard Clifton. /DNREC photo.
Dennis Arp of Edison, Neb. won the Delaware State Trout Stamp competition for the second time with his rendering of a brook tout.
