This will open on Thursday, March 4 at 10:30 am

Utah Duck Stamp Print 1986 Whistling Swans by Leon Parson

Framed dimensions: 18.5" x 18.5"

This will close on Friday, March 5 at 4PM MST

Winner will be announced on Friday, March 5 at 4:30 PM MST through email/text

Winner to arrange for pick up or shipping with Fundraising Committee

Leon Parson - North American Wildlife Artist

About the Artist

Leon Parson moved to southeast Idaho when he was a young boy. There, he developed a deep love and insight for wildlife, the outdoors, and all that nature offers.

He is currently a member of the art faculty at Brigham Young University-Idaho (formerly Ricks College) in Rexburg, Idaho. As faculty of 27 years, he has taught drawing, design, color, illustration and oil painting. He has served the past three years as Chairman of the Department of Art.

He is a member of two prestigious, international wildlife guilds, the SAA (Society of Animal Artists) and the WNAG (Worldwide Nature Artists Group). Throughout his career, he has produced magnificent works of art that have endured in collectability and popularity. More than 50 of them have become limited edition lithographs and giclées. His artwork has been featured on the covers of nearly 100 magazines and publications, both wildlife and religious.

"True art must stir the heart and reach deep into the soul of the viewer if it is going to last. Emotions make art 'live'. I judge everything first with my mind and then give it the final critique from my heart. I believe that before an artist hopes to touch the heart of another, he must first have that feeling within himself. Sometimes your heart chooses things that you have to be true to, regardless of what your mind thinks. I have personally been intrigued with animals since I was a small child and am thrilled inside each time I get a chance to observe them. It doesn't matter if it's just a fleeting glimpse or if I have the privilege of spending all day with them. It is so crucial to me to experience first hand all that I paint from listening to a pair of bull elk insult each other across a canyon with their bugles or realize that a big old buck has been watching me and then, with eye contact made, see him turn and magically vanish into the timber. I need to experience the first light of morning as it turns the gray-green pines into a soft orange, or watch as the snow changes the forest's complexion, beginning in the fall through heavy winter and finally into spring. If I'm not living it, how else can I say it honestly in art?!"