A Powell High School student’s artwork soared to the top of the 2017 Wyoming Junior Duck Stamp Contest. Hannah Saville’s rendition of a king eider drake, titled “Taking Flight,” was recently named Best of Show out of 574 entries from around the state.

Saville was surprised when she heard that her piece took top honors.

“All I could say for about five minutes was, ‘What?’” she said. “I couldn’t believe it.”

A freshman at Powell High School, Saville completed the colored-pencil duck drawing as an assignment in her art class taught by Jim Gilman.

To create her piece, Saville said she “looked at a ton of pictures” of ducks, water and vegetation.

Saville wanted to draw a duck in flight, and she thought the king eider drake’s unique markings looked cool.

“I tried to do it as realistically as I could to the picture I was using of the duck, of the water, of the grass in the corner,” Saville said.

She said she enjoys drawing and painting, and called art her favorite class.

“I want to be an artist when I get older,” Saville said.

As the Best of Show winner, Saville’s artwork advances to represent Wyoming at the 2017 National Federal Junior Duck Stamp Contest on April 21 in Charleston, South Carolina. The winning entry at the national level will be used to create a National Junior Duck Stamp, which will be released in June.

Powell students won multiple awards in the 2017 Wyoming Junior Duck Stamp Program (see the list below). Several PHS students were runners-up for Best of Show.

“It was nice to see PHS students do so well,” Gilman said. “They worked very hard on their entries, and there were many amazing works. I’m very proud of all of them.”

As the statewide winner, Saville also won $1,000 and art supplies.

She hasn’t decided how she’ll use the prize money. Her parents, Esther and Chris Saville, bought her a used truck, and she agreed to help pay it off, so she may use the money toward that, or save it.

The state contest is sponsored by the Federal Junior Duck Stamp Program, Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge and Wyoming Ducks Unlimited. The program uses both conservation and design principles to teach wetland habitat and waterfowl biology to students in kindergarten through high school.

This year’s winning conservation message for Wyoming is: “People say that the future holds great things, but without conservation the future holds nothing.” Isabelle Olsen of Wright submitted the winning message.

Copies of students’ winning artwork will be exhibited around the state this year. The tour begins April 10 at the Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Wyoming. Powell will be included on the tour in coming months; a detailed schedule of tour dates will be available online at www.fws.gov/refuge/seedskadee/wyjrduck in May.