Richard Clifton’s painting of gadwalls won the 2017 North Carolina Waterfowl Conservation Stamp competition (also known as the duck-stamp contest) conducted at the Washington Civic Center on Tuesday.

The five judges scored Clifton’s entry the best out of 39 entries for this year’s contest. Clifton has won 46 duck-stamp contests in several states, Australian duck-stamp contest in 1996 and the 2007-2008 federal duck-stamp competition. He’s a previous winner of the North Carolina duck-stamp contest.

Clifton’s entry scored 41 of a possible 45 points. Clifton lives in Milford, Del. Scot Storm finished second, followed by John Brennan in third place, James Hautman in fourth place and Jeffrey Klinefelter in fifth place. Storm and Klinefelter are past winners of the North Carolina contest. Brennan took third place in last year’s competition. Hautman won the 1990, 1995, 1999 and 2012 federal duck-stamp contests.

“I think gadwall are one of those ducks that are sort of understated. They don’t have a lot of flashy color like some of the other species If you paint them well and you do them right, there’s something just elegant and tasteful about that species,” Clifton said Tuesday afternoon. “So, I think that was the inspiration — to try to see if I could pull of some sort of tasteful piece with the gadwall and have the jump and pop it needs to make a good duck stamp.”

Clifton is not sure if he will be able to attend the unveiling of the top-five entries in this year’s competition. The unveiling is set for 6:30 p.m. Feb. 9 at the North Carolina Estuarium.

Gary L. Payne, state chairman of North Carolina Ducks Unlimited, was one of the five judges for this year’s contest, his first time judging. “I thought they were all excellent. Some of them you tell they are just starting out as artists, and I wouldn’t want to say anything bad about them. So, they were easy to move out, but when we got into that third round, it was very difficult, very difficult,” he said.

Also judging the contest were Washington resident Jeffrey Jakub, a signature member of the American Watercolor Society; Sanford Bailey, an outdoorsman from Wake Forest; Greg Sorrell, a decoy carver from Greenville and Mike Lubbock, known by many as the Waterfowl Man and executive director of Sylvan Heights Bird Park at Scotland Neck.

This year’s blue-ribbon entry will be used as the artwork for the prints and stamps sold to help pay for North Carolina’s portion of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, an international agreement aimed at protecting waterfowl and waterfowl habitat. The sales of prints and stamps also support waterfowl research and purchases equipment used in wetlands management.

Garrett Jacobs’ painting of a brant was the winner of the 2016 North Carolina Waterfowl Conservation Stamp competition.

Of the 39 entries received this year, 31 were from men, eight from women. The entries came from 18 states. Among the artists who submitted entries, there are four federal duck-stamp winners and six North Carolina duck-stamp winners, according to Lynn Wingate, Washington’s tourism-development director.

The artist who submits the winning entry receives $7,000 in prize money and a $300 travel allowance to help him or her attend the unveiling. The top five entries will be exhibited during the unveiling.

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and the Washington Tourism Development Authority sponsor the annual contest.

In past years, the duck-stamp contest served as a prelude to the East Carolina Wildlife Arts Festival and North Carolina Decoy Carving Championships, which are not scheduled for this year. Entries come from some of the best wildlife artists in the nation and other countries.