HARRIETTA, Mich., Feb. 19, 2008 – Nature produces many beautiful snapshots and artists allow us to encapsulate those fleeting scenes and hang them on our walls as reminders of moments past. One such talented artist is Janet Long, a Harrietta, Mich., resident and the 2008 Michigan Ducks Unlimited Sponsor Artist of the Year.
Long’s painting, “Widgeon Waters,” was selected as the 2008 Michigan Ducks Unlimited Sponsors Print by a people’s choice vote at the 2007 Michigan Ducks Unlimited (DU) state convention, held last February in Lansing. Long’s win was announced at the convention. The print is available to all Michigan DU sponsors who contribute $250 or more.
Long’s skill for capturing elegant nature scenes started with her childhood surroundings—40 acres of wildlife and woods in northern Michigan—and continued as she sketched side by side with her father, also an artist. She studied art at Brethren High School and sketching and painting at West Shore Community College, as well as participating in workshops led by wildlife artist Rod Lawrence. Long lives close to her daughter and grandson in Harrietta, where she sells her work at local galleries and teaches art classes herself.
The Michigan Ducks Unlimited Sponsor Print Program gains its funding from Dow, an underwriter since the program’s inception in 1986. Because of this support, Michigan’s sponsor membership has increased from a few hundred to more than 3,000. As all sponsor contributions go directly into habitat restoration projects, this program has resulted in the creation of thousands of wetland acres.
If you are interested in entering the 2009 Sponsor Artist of the Year competition, please visit http://www.ducks.org/Michigan/MIContent/3601/SponsorArtistoftheYear.html for more information. The competition will coincide with the Michigan DU state convention, June 20-22 at the Treetops Resort in Gaylord. Contest paperwork is due by June 16. The 2009 subjects are the bufflehead, redhead or green-winged teal.
With more than a million supporters, Ducks Unlimited is the world’s largest and most effective wetland and waterfowl conservation organization with almost 12 million acres conserved. The United States alone has lost more than half of its original wetlands - nature’s most productive ecosystem - and continues to lose more than 80,000 wetland acres each year.
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