Jeffrey Klinefelter of Etna Green, Indiana, and Mike Brown of Canton, Georgia, have won Massachusetts' 2010 deer hunting stamp competitions, and images of their artwork will grace the state's 2011 Archery stamp and the state's 2011 Primitive Firearms stamp, respectively.

Klinefelter, who also won the 2009 Archery stamp competition, submitted a painting of four deer against a sunset sky. The Archery stamp is required of anyone hunting deer during the archery (bow hunting) season. It costs $5.10, and each year the Archery stamp generates approximately $140,000 for wildlife conservation programs in Massachusetts.

No stranger to Massachusetts stamp competitions, Klinefelter won this state's Archery stamp contests in 1994, 2002 and in 2009 (for the 2010 stamp). Jeffrey had been interested in drawing and painting from a very young age and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Herron School of Art at Indiana University. After graduating from college, Klinefelter helped to run his father's business for 23 years, during which time he painted only sparingly, during the winter of each year. In 1993, he decided to devote more time to art and entered and won the Indiana Duck stamp contest.

Mike Brown is a first-time entrant in the Massachusetts competitions. His painting of a pair of whitetails in the snow will be reproduced on Massachusetts' 2011 Primitive Firearms Stamp, which also costs $5.10 and is required for anyone hunting deer during the primitive firearms deer hunting season. The Primitive Arms stamp generates approximately $160,000 annually for wildlife conservation in the Commonwealth.

Mike is a self-taught artist whose ideas for paintings are drawn from memories of days spent afield. His love of wildlife and nature has been part of his artwork for the past three decades. In 2009, at his wife's urging, he entered his first stamp art contests for the Federal and Nevada Waterfowl Stamps) and found that he "was hooked." He placed second in the competition for Ducks Unlimited's 2010 Artists of the Year in both Georgia and Michigan, and he was named DU's Ohio Sponsor Artist of the Year for 2011. This is Mike's first victory in a state stamp competition.

The winning art for the state 2011 Waterfowl stamp was selected in an earlier judging. That stamp will depict the image of a Brant, carved by Joseph Lincoln of Hingham, and painted by Randy Julius of East Bridgewater, Massachusetts (see August E-newsletter # 9).

Stamps will be available after December 1 at all hunting and fishing license sales outlets.