SIDNEY, Ohio – The work does not start in a well-lit studio with easels, canvas and containers of oil paints surroudning the artist. When Christine Clayton sets out to bring life to her recreations of wildlife, she is often waist deep in a marsh, tucked into waders and wearing a bulky ghillie suit to camouflage her presence.

She wants to disappear or blend into the cattails and bulrushes so she can observe her subjects in their most natural and undisturbed behavior.

“I do all of my own photos and work from them, so I want to see these ducks or other waterfowl and get pictures that show their incredible detail,” said the 23-year-old artist who took third place in the prestigious national Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest with her oil painting of a single blue-winged teal.

She records images of waterfowl near her rural home near here, northeast of Dayton, but she has also traveled to South Dakota and taken pictures of ducks along Lake Erie.

“I’ve got probably 8,000 photos of wildlife. We’ve always been outdoors people and I like everything about the outdoors,” Clayton said. “My dad hunts deer and I’ve gone dove hunting. Hunting is in the family.”

Clayton, who started drawing and painting wildlife at the age of five, said she would nurture her skill as an artist by drawing with her dad, but she never had a specific interest in waterfowl until she became involved with the duck stamp contests as a junior artist.

“I painted waterfowl since the contest requires it, and then I realized how much I loved it,” she said.

In 2013 as a 17-year-old high school junior, Clayton won the National Junior Duck Stamp Art Contest with a painting of northern pintails.

“I had finished third the year before and that inspired me to do the best I could and try to win the contest the following year,” the self-taught artist said. “I thought if I really put everything I had into my painting, then I would have a chance to win it, and I was fortunate to finish first that next year.”

Clayton works out of her rural home near here and said she is pleased there is a market for her creations, and wildlife art in general.

“I think having some success in that national contest at a pretty young age gave me confidence and showed me that there was an opportunity and maybe I could do this for a living,” she said. “Selling my paintings and making limited edition prints has definitely opened some doors for me.”

She won the 2015 Ohio Wetlands Habitat Stamp contest with her stunning painting of wood ducks. She set the mark as the youngest winner ever at 20 years of age, and was only the second female winner of the competition, which began in 1982.

Clayton has displayed and sold her works at Inverness Club, at Cabela’s in Dundee, at the Pte. Mouillee Waterfowl Festival in Brownstown, Mich., and at the Ohio Decoy Collectors and Carvers Association shows. She also sells her art at shows in the Dayton area, and on-line. Since her father and her sister are also wildlife artists, the family uses the claytonwildlifeart.com website to show their wares, along with the “Clayton Wildlife Art” Facebook page.

“People find me and my work when I do well in the contests, and I plan to continue to enter the national Duck Stamp contest. It’s my dream to win it,” she said.

Clayton credits Ohio native and two-time Federal Duck Stamp Competition winner Adam Grimm with providing encouragement and for mentoring her as a young wildlife artist. Grimm won his first Federal Duck Stamp Competition in 1999, at the age of 21, and became the youngest winner in the history of the event.

Minnesota artist Bob Hautman was the winner of the 2017 Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest, and his acrylic painting of a pair of mallards will be made into the 2018-2019 Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp, known as the "Duck Stamp," and will go on sale in late June 2018. Hautman also won the Federal Duck Stamp Contest in 1997 and 2001.

The Federal Duck Stamp sells for $25 and raises about $40 million each year to conserve and protect wetland habitats in the National Wildlife Refuge System. These wetlands are essential for their role in purifying water, aiding in flood control, reducing soil erosion and sedimentation, and enhancing the public’s outdoor recreation options.

Waterfowl hunters 16 years of age and older are required to purchase a Duck Stamp, and the stamps are also popular with collectors and conservationists. A current Federal Duck Stamp also serves as a free pass into any national wildlife refuge that charges an entry fee.

“Our nation’s waterfowl hunters and other sportsmen and women have a long tradition of leading the way in conserving wildlife and habitat,” U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke said when the contest winners were announced recently. “There is no better example of this than the Duck Stamp, one of the most successful conservation programs in U.S. history, through which hunters have contributed hundreds of millions of dollars since its inception eight decades ago.”

Contact Blade outdoors editor Matt Markey at mmarkey@theblade.com or 419-724-6068.

First Published November 5, 2017, 4:56 a.m.