Adam Grimm’s painting of a pair of spectacled eiders won the 2024 Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest last week. He is the youngest winner of the prestigious national competition, winning in 1999 at the age of 21. (Photo by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

BY D’ARCY PATRICK EGAN

Adam Grimm’s artwork was featured on the cover of the 2023-24 hunting and trapping regulations. (Photo by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources)

The legendary waterfowl artist Adam Grimm, 46, who grew up in Elyria and extensively hunted and photographed the famed marshes of Sandusky Bay, won this third Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest on Friday, Sept. 20.

His acrylic painting of a pair of spectacled eiders, large ducks known for their brightly colored bills and white spectacle-like eye patches, won from a group of artists narrowed to 239 entries by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service judges at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Conn.

Grimm, 46, has two wetland restorations he helped to create in the Sandusky Bay Area named in his honor for his art, as well as environmental contributions and accomplishments. The Adam Grimm Prairie wetlands is located in the western portion of the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge in Ottawa County. The Adam Grimm Marsh is located on the Sandusky Bay shoreline in Erie County.

Also excelling in the Ohio Wetlands Stamp Contest, Grimm won the competition three times in 2005, 2014 and 2021. His artwork is also found on the cover of the 2023-24 hunting and trapping regulations.

Rural Wallace, S.D. now fits the lifestyle best for Grimm and his wife, Janet. Grimm returns to Ohio every March, however, to attend the Ohio Decoy Collectors & Carvers Association show in the Cleveland area, calling it “my home town art show.”

The Federal Duck Stamp Contest started in 1934, and the Ohio Wetlands Habitat Stamp Contest began in 1982. Waterfowl hunters in Ohio are required to purchase both the Federal Duck Stamp and Ohio Wetland Habitat before hunting.

Proceeds from the sales of both stamps are used to acquire, restore and protect wetland habitat, with the Federal Stamp raising more than $1.3 billion over the years to conserve 6 million acres of habitat for birds and other wildlife.

Adam Grimm won the Ohio Wetlands Habitat Stamp Contest three times (2005, 2014 and 2021). (Photo by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources)

After graduating from Elyria Catholic High School, Grimm attended the Columbus College of Art and Design. His teachers failed to fan the flames of a budding waterfowl artist, and Grimm wanted to quit. Parents Len and Jane Grimm of Elyria told him he had to stick it out, but there was an escape clause. If the young artist could do the impossible by winning the Federal Duck Stamp Competition, formal schooling could go by the wayside.

Grimm’s dramatic painting of a backlit mottled duck turned U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service judges’ heads in 1999. At 21, he became the youngest artist to ever win the Federal Duck Stamp Competition despite a field of the country’s premier waterfowl artists.

“That changed my life,” said Grimm. “I could probably have made more money over the years painting art for some company, but spending time with my wife and kids is pretty worthwhile. I love to paint, and I enjoy the outdoors and hunting.”

Ohio’s regular waterfowl hunting seasons this year begin Saturday, Oct. 12 in the Lake Erie Marsh Zone and Saturday, Oct. 19 in the North and South Zones.