Mark Thone Art - Conservation Stamps

Conservation Stamps & Prints

Participation in stamp & print competitions both sharpens my artistic skills and helps raise money for wildlife habitat. It is part of my artistic mission along with my business plan to help protect the habitat that inspires my art.

I'm proud to have helped raise over Two Million Dollars in conservation funds and continue towards the next million!

artbymarkthone@gmail.com

My winning 2025 Minnesota Trout Stamp

2024 Winning Minnesota Pheasant Stamp

Limited Edition Prints available Now! $145.00

Winning a wildlife stamp or becoming a sponsorship artist can be a life long dream for many artists and I shared that dream for many years before success and luck finally crossed paths. Four consecutive second place finishes in the Minnesota Pheasant Stamp Contest teach you perseverance! Entry pieces can actually take years to develop from trips afield with a camera, sketching, research, and reworking of an entry that places high in the judging, but just needs that little bit more to move to the top along with a little bit of old fashioned luck added in.

The Hautmans...and some guy! These artists have pushed the Federal Duck Stamp to new levels.

Minnesota Nice Guys!

Why Does Minnesota have so many Wildlife Artists?

My story is that as a kid I was fortunate to have a father that loved to hunt and fish. He passed that love down to me and he also

introduced me to the world of Wildlife Art. One of my favorite memmories was when he took me to the Kouba Gallery where I met Les Kouba. My dad also brought home the latest Wild Wings catalogs and I would spend hours mesmerized by art and artists featured in it. I also visited another gallery called The Wooden Bird anytime I was at our local mall. While I loved art and made graphic art part of my individually designed multi faceted major at The University of Minnesota, it wasn't until after college that I took up painting as a fun stress reliver to my advertising and

graphics career.

My paintings stayed as a hobby as I didn't think I could possibly join the talented group of established Minnesota Artists until my wonderful wife thought that after my fifth painting I should get a few of the pieces framed. One thing led to another when the framer saw my work and asked if he could show it to the Minnesota Waterfowl Association. Five in the Corner Pocket became the 25th Anniversary Print and led me down the path to entering wildlife contests. A fun side note on my Five In The Corner Pocket painting is that it won the honor of being named MWA Print for their 25th Anniversary and the other image also being considered for the award was a non released print by none other than Les Kouba.