Guy Crittenden’s painting of black ducks won this year’s North Carolina Waterfowl Conservation Stamp competition held at the Washington Civic Center on Monday.

Crittenden, whose studio is in Richmond, Va., is a four-time winner of the Virginia duck-stamp contest.

“I’m thrilled. It’s awesome. It’s won of the biggest in the country. I can’t believe it —Little Washington, North Carolina. It’s probably the biggest thing that’s happened to me. I won (the) Louisiana (contest) this year, which is also a big one,” he said in a brief interview Wednesday. “North Carolina, as far as the prestige and the artists they have there, I’m so excited to be in that company. It’s amazing.”

His artwork 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.

The North Carolina contest served as a prelude to the 20^th East Carolina Wildlife Arts Festival and North Carolina Decoy Carving Championships set for Feb. 6-8 in Washington. Crittenden plans to make his inaugural visit to the festival next weekend.

Minnesota resident Scot Storm, who’s won the contest several times (including last year), took second place. Ohio resident Matt Clayton took third place, Georgia resident Broderick Crawford claimed fourth place and Minnesota resident Tim Turenne finished in fifth place. Those top-five entries, including the winning entry, will be unveiled during the Sponsors’ Reception the night of Feb. 5. They will be exhibited at the Turnage Theater during the festival weekend. The top entries may be viewed Feb. 7 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feb. 8.

Under contest rules, photographs of the top-five entries may not be taken until they are unveiled publicly.

This year’s contest attracted 35 entries from 22 states across the country, but only two entries were from North Carolina.

“Just to give you an indication of how stiff the competition was, here are some accolades from some of the artists that didn’t make the top 5,” Lynn Wingate, the city’s tourism-development director, wrote in an email announcing the top-five winners.

One of those artists is a nine-time winner of the Pennsylvania duck-stamp contest. Another artist is a five-time winner of the Nevada duck-stamp competition. Yet another artist is a two-time winner of the North Carolina duck-stamp contest, plus a winner of a Michigan duck-stamp competition and an Oklahoma duck-stamp contest. Another artist was a top-10 finalist in a federal duck-stamp competition,

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 festival.

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

The festival will be open to the public on Friday (5 p.m. to 8 p.m.) for the first time. In its previous 19 years, the festival was open to the public on Saturdays and Sundays.

For more information about the festival, visit www.ECWAF.com.