Paint N Paddle Studio; Rob Mullen Sponsored canoeist, Mad River Canoe Co BS in Biology, University of Vermont Signature member Society of Animal Artists (NYC) and Worldwide Nature Artists' Group (Vancouver, BC). Best of Show, California Open, San Diego, CA 2005. Best of Show, Pac Rim Art Show Seattle, WA 1999. Best of Show, Northeastern Wildlife Art Show, Stowe, VT 1999. Arts for the Parks Top 100 Show and National Tour; '96,'97,'98,'99 (Best Waterfowl Award, '97 and Cape Hatteras National Seashore Award, '98). Birds in Art '99 My lab drawings as a biology student led to illustrating periodical articles for my professors' and the suggestion that I go professional. After 16 years as a free-lance commercial artist in Manhattan, I moved back to Vermont, winning the Vermont Duck Stamp Competition on my first attempt. Since then I've won over 30 awards at more than 70 shows coast to coast. In Aug/Sept 2001 I undertook a 300-mile painting/canoe expedition through the Boreal Forest wilderness to James Bay on the Missiniabi River. I was sponsored by Mad River Canoe Company and published in Wildlife Art and Canoe and Kayak Magazines. Since then the project has grown and evolved to involve the Smithsonian Institution, and some of the best wildlife artists and paddlers in the world. I've incorporated the non-profit "Wilderness River Expedition Art Foundation" to facilitate organization safety and funding. In addition to Mad River Canoe Co. this effort is being supported by Voyageur Outfitters, Makivik Corporation (Inuit-owned Quebec company)the Worldwide Nature Artists' Group and the Canadian Boreal Initiative of the PEW Charitable Trusts. Our goal is to help create an informed constituency to spur and support conservation of the Boreal Forest; the largest forest on Earth.