John Nelson Harris is a signature member of the Society of Animal Artists and he has been successfully designing waterfowl conservation stamps for well over 20 years. He is also an outdoorsman, and deeply believes in the conservation of wildlife and their habitats. In fact, over the past two decades, John’s artwork has help to raise tens of thousands of dollars for conservation groups in both Canada and the United States. Although many of his painting techniques are self-taught, his artistic skills were honed by years of formal training. He attended Brevard State College and then went on to achieve a Bachelor’s degree then continued on to pursue a Fine Arts degree from the College of Fine Arts at the University of Florida, graduating with Honors in 1984. As a freelance artist, John is actively competing in several Wildlife Art conservation stamp and print contests each year. Over the years, many of his paintings have been displayed at shows such as the Society of Animal Artist exhibits and prestigious Birds in Arts exhibit held each year at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin. John is the recipient of many awards and honors and is one of Florida’s most successful Wildlife and Conservation Stamp Artist, winning his State’s Waterfowl Stamp Competition three out of the last five years that the contest was held. John is the only artist to ever have won the Florida Waterfowl Stamp contest three times. In 1999 he won second place honors in the Nation’s Federal Duck Stamp Contest with his acrylic painting of a Northern Pintail Duck in flight. His painting of three wood ducks titled “The look Out” was the winner of the 1999 Wyoming Ducks Unlimited Artist of the Year. In addition, John won the Florida Ducks Unlimited Art Contest for the 2002 Artist of the Year with an acrylic painting titled, “Father and Son”. In 2004, his art was selected to as designs for two Canadian conservation stamps. One of John’s paintings of a pair of Black Ducks was selected as the winner of the 2007 Michigan Ducks Unlimited Artist of the Year Sponsor Print and Stamp. More recently, John’s wildlife paintings have won the State Stamp design contest for the 2016 and 2021 Louisiana stamp contest, the 2014 and 2018 California stamp contest, as well as, the 2019 Oklahoma Waterfowl Stamp.