Label & Artist Series
A Classic Choice by Roger Blum
The Butte Sink in California's Sacramento Valley is a combination of both natural marshland and cultivated rice paddies where millions of migrating ducks and geese rest or terminate their winter migration.
Waterfowl artist Roger Blum has also visited the Butte Sink. It took little prodding when we asked him to create our 1995 label. Entitled "A Classic Choice," this majestic pair of mallards is pictured returning from feeding in the rice fields nearby to rest in the shadow of the Buttes. The original oil painting features a pair of mallards and a panoramic view of the Butte Sink, a detail of which is depicted on the 1995 Paraduxx label.
The spawning ground for Roger Blum's future as a landscape and sporting artist was the beautiful Monterey coast in Northern California. Roger spent much of his youth hunting, fishing, and exploring the natural world around him. He received his bachelor's degree in commercial art from Pacific Union College in Angwin, California and went on to receive his master's degree in illustration from San Jose State College in California. Roger was chosen to be a combat artist in Vietnam and his paintings and drawings are now part of the Pentagon war art collection in Washington, D.C. He has worked for Hallmark Cards, Inc. in Kansas City, Missouri and has chaired two college art departments at Pacific Union College and Atlantic Union College. Roger's work continues to be published in national outdoor and sporting journals, and is shown in major galleries across the country. Recently Roger and his wife moved to the Rockies in southern Colorado. With a new vantage point from a mountain lake in the beautiful San Juan Mountains, the seasonal changes and abundant wildlife there are sure to inspire him for many years to come.
