In wake of Hurricane Sandy, students have a few more days to get entries in

Fairfax, Virginia - Since Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast earlier this week, we've been getting lots of calls and emails from people asking whether the George Montgomery/NRA Youth Wildlife Art Contest's deadline has been pushed back or if it's been canceled all together. Fair questions considering how damaged some areas were after the hurricane passed.

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Blue-eyed cougar joins NRA art contest's toughest category

Fairfax, Virginia - While the envelopes are piling up here at NRA headquarters, many students are still hard at work on their entries for this year's George Montgomery/NRA Youth Wildlife Art Contest. The deadline for a chance at the $7,000 in prizes is now just one week away.

Highlighting another entry fresh off the top of yesterday's deliveries, we have Paige Rajnus' stalking cougar. Entitled Snow Queen, this beautiful watercolor painting came all the way from Malin, Oregon. And "snow queen" is right. This cougar looks every bit the part, staring at you in a way that's only comfortable on paper.

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Tenth grader hopes northwestern sheep will do well in fall art contest

Fairfax, Virginia - Alysha Gaskill from Dry Ridge, Kentucky sent this Dall sheep, titled King of the Mountain, into this year's George Montgomery/NRA Youth Wildlife Art Contest.

Drawn with pencil and demonstrating great shading technique, it's apparent that Alysha put a lot of time into her entry. A fifteen year old in the tenth grade, Alysha's entry has been placed in Category IV (for students in grades 10-12).

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Need some clarification on the NRA Youth Wildlife Art Contest? This should help.

Fairfax, Virginia - The George Montgomery/NRA Youth Wildlife Art Contest has been getting a bunch of questons this year. We started wondering how many more of you out there need clarification on something but haven't called or emailed us yet?

To help with any lingering clarifications you may need, we've put together a Frequently Asked Questions guide based on the most common inquiries. With the deadline coming up in two and a half weeks, this list should help you stay on track with creating your entries instead of pondering rules - always a good thing. If you still have something you'd like to ask, please call (703-267-1588) or email us.

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Young artists compete for $7,000 in prizes this fall in NRA Youth Wildlife Art Contest

Fairfax, Virginia - The entries for this year's George Montgomery/NRA Youth Wildlife Art Contest just keep rolling in now that the deadline is a couple weeks away. If we could highlight each and every entry, we'd do it, but for now we can only bring you a handful of the ones that catch our eye.

For this next entry we're going to move up to the oldest group, Category IV - for students in tenth, eleventh and twelfth grades.

David Zhang from San Jose, California sent us this outstanding painting of some black bears titled Bears at the River. Done on canvas, David showcases his amazing skill as a painter, making the bears appear as if they could walk right off the image.

Being in Category IV, David will be up against some strong competition, but it looks like he's up to the challenge. We'll see how David, Category IV and the rest of the contest's entries fare when our judges come to look at it all in just under a month.

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Three year veteran of the George Montgomery/NRA Youth Wildlife Art Contest coming strong off Honorable Mention in 2011

Fairfax, Virginia - The George Montgomery/NRA Youth Wildlife Art Contest gets a lot of entries each year, but only a handful can receive awards. These students put so much time and effort into their entries and we want to show them off as much as possible. Until the contest is judged, we're going to keep highlighting just some of the entries that catch our eye as they come in. Entries like this one by Jackie Eschbach of Hillsborough, New Jersey.

Jackie began entering our contest in 2010 at the age of eight and is now competing for her third time. In 2011 she even received an Honorable Mention in Category II for a great portrait of a mountain lion. This year she's toned back the ferocity and size, sending us a peaceful pika drawn with colored pencil.

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Simone Woolley's skilled portrait among 2012 art contest entries

Here's another great entry for this year's George Montgomery/NRA Youth Wildlife Art Contest. This portrait of a white-tailed deer comes from Simone Woolley of Southern Pines, North Carolina. Simone's 9-point buck was created entirely in pencil and if you look close enough you can see the individual hairs she meticulously drew.

Simone's entry is also matted, which looks nice, but is not necessary for the contest. Our judges look carefully at every piece of art for effort, creativity, anatomical accuracy, and composition. Mattes and frames do not affect an entry's placement, so please do not think you must include one.

Being 13 years old and in the eighth grade, Simone's entry is at the upper end of Category III - reserved for sixth through eighth graders. The deadline to enter is still a month away and we're expecting many more entries, but we wish her the best of luck with our panel of judges.

Are you a young artist or do you know one? The Youth Wildlife Art Contest is open to all 1st through 12th grade students. You can draw, paint, etch, use charcoal, or whatever you like, just make sure you depict an animal that's legal to hunt or trap in North America. Your entry must arrive at NRA Headquarters (11250 Waples Mill Road, Fairfax, Virginia 22030) by the November 5, 2012 deadline in order to be eligible for judging.

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Still plenty of time to enter this year's NRA art contest

We're a little over a month away from the deadline for the 2012 George Montgomery/NRA Youth Wildlife Art Contest but there's more than enough time to create your entries and get them in by the November 5 deadline.

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The first entries are beginning to arrive for this year's art contest

Ten year-old Carolyn McLean of Pantego, Texas is just one of the great contestants who have entered this year's George Montgomery/NRA Youth Wildlife Art Contest. Her Vulpes vulpes fulva, or red fox, is lurking through a forest showing the earliest signs of fall, much like here in the Washington D.C. area. A piece colored carefully with crayon, this fifth grader brings the nimble fox to life - and stays within the lines.

We won't know how Carolyn's fox measures up to the rest of the Category II (for fourth through sixth grade contestants) entries until the judges go to work in November, but we wish her the best of luck.

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