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Milton native combines his love of wildlife with winning artistic skill

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Milton artist pieces

This fall, Craig Fairbert won a contest to design the 2010 Wisconsin waterfowl stamp, making him one of a small handful to win all five of the stamp design contests offered in Wisconsin.

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As an avid hunter and fisherman, Craig Fairbert knows the beauty of Wisconsin wildlife.

As an artist, he captures that beauty on canvas.

Walk into any Gander Mountain or Cabela’s, and you’ll probably see the Milton native’s work on T-shirts. And if you’ve held certain hunting or fishing licenses in the past few years, you’ve seen his vivid paintings of some of Wisconsin’s most popular animals.

This fall, Fairbert won a contest to design the 2010 Wisconsin waterfowl stamp, making him one of a small handful to win all five of the stamp design contests offered in Wisconsin. He also won the inland trout stamp contest this year for the second time.

“That’s the one that’s kind of been eluding me,” he said of the waterfowl contest. “That one gets a few more entries than the other ones.”

Hunters and fishermen must buy stamps to go with licenses for inland trout, Great Lakes trout and salmon, waterfowl, turkey and pheasant. Sales from the stamps go to conservation and preservation efforts.

Fairbert, who now lives near Ladysmith, won his first contest designing the 2005 Great Lakes trout and salmon stamp.

He loves to enter the contests even though there’s no prize money attached, he said. He likes the competition and getting his name out there.

“I look at it as a notch in the belt,” he said. “It’s definitely making a difference. I get quite a few calls and e-mails about buying prints.”

He’s getting his name out there in other ways, too. By day, he designs T-shirts for a screen-printing company. Lately he’s spent his free time illustrating a book for a Colorado author.

The book, “The Three Chubby Bears,” is the first in a series of six and should be available soon.

None of it surprises Fairbert’s mother, Julie Hosszu. She said her son has shown a talent for art since he was 3 years old.

“When the other kids were out playing, he would be in drawing,” she said.

It was only natural he integrated his love of wildlife into his art, she said.

Julie and Fairbert’s stepfather, Frank Hosszu, hang paintings of Fairbert’s work in their inn in Bayfield. Fairbert’s father, Robert Fairbert, lives in Milton.

“We are extremely proud of him,” Julie said. “We’re so thrilled for this last (contest) because this is the one that he’s been striving for, the duck.”

Fairbert plans to pass his love of art and wildlife on to future generations. His sons love hunting and fishing, and he’s studying to become an art teacher.

He and his wife dream of moving west someday, but for now, his home on Flambeau Lake offers the perfect setting for his work, he said.

“I’m in the woods,” he said. “It’s very serene. It’s perfect.”