[press release]
Insects play leading part in summer version of ‘Experience Nature’ stamp series
The Hague, 4 June 2018 – PostNL will be issuing the new ‘Experience Nature’ stamp series this year. There will be a ten-stamp sheetlet for each season. The third stamp series will appear today. This summer edition of the stamp series is devoted to insects. The autumn version of this stamp series, with mushrooms, will follow in October.
The summer stamps feature 10 insects we may encounter in our country. The photographs used are ‘portraits’ of these insects in their natural environment. Most images run almost imperceptibly through onto the adjacent stamp. This makes it seem like the insects live side by side in the same habitat.
The beauty of nature
With the ‘Experience Nature’ stamp series, PostNL pays tribute to the diversity of nature in our country. “The stamps in this series show Dutch nature on its best behaviour,” says Stephan van den Eijnden, PostNL’s Commercial Director for Mail. “After the reptiles & amphibians and the wildflowers, 10 insects are showing themselves in their best light. A promising run-up to the fourth sheetlet, which will be appearing this autumn.”
Thousands of photos
For the ‘Experience Nature’ series, graphic designer Frank Janse from Gouda selected around one thousand photographs for each of the four stamp sheetlets. He narrowed these down to a shortlist consisting of around a hundred images, from which he chose the ten photographs that made it onto each stamp sheetlet. He was guided by both the beauty of the photograph and the special characteristics of the depicted plants and animals. The photographs are the work of amateur photographers who send their best images to the PIXFACTORY websites.
Availability
The ‘Experience Nature – Insects’ stamp sheetlet consists of ten different stamps marked with ‘Nederland 1’, the denomination for items up to 20g in weight destined for mail in the Netherlands. The stamps are available from 4 June at all post offices and online at postnl.nl/bijzondere-postzegels and can also be ordered by calling the Collect Club customer service on 088 – 868 99 00, The stamps are valid until further notice.
Cheryl Ganz has been chosen to fill a vacancy on the American Philatelic Society’s Board of Directors. By a unanimous vote, the former Smithsonian National Postal Museum philatelic curator was elected as a Vice President, filling the vacancy when Bob Zeigler succeeded Mick Zais as president. 
5280 (50¢) Peace Rose
[press release]
American Philatelic Society, in the design track. Her mentor is professional artist Chris Calle and her sponsor is Ann Duncan.
Leviss is also a first day cover cachetmaker and has in recent years had a table at the cachetmakers bourse. (The photo here is from Americover 2015.) She is the daughter of the late Gerry Leviss, co-founder of Barry & Gerry Covers, and her mother Donna often operates the BGC booth at Americover.
Good thing I didn’t print my 
I re-edited the photo. Putting back the bystanders on the sides not only increased the width, it also decreased the height of the picture. The result (also a mock-up) is shown in Figure 2.
No, no, discretion is the better part of valor. I’ll use a different design for the dual-canceled Dragon Cards.
The original works were created by Royal Academicians: Norman Ackroyd CBE, RA; Tracey Emin CBE, RA; Grayson Perry CBE, RA; Fiona Rae RA; Barbara Rae CBE, RA and Yinka Shonibare MBE, RA.
As stipulated 250 years ago, the RA is still led by many of the greatest artists and architects of the day. Known as Royal Academicians, they teach at the postgraduate Royal Academy Schools, determine the exhibitions programme and select artworks for the Summer Exhibition.
Leeds born Norman Ackroyd CBE is an artist and printmaker who has been a Royal Academician for 30 years. He was appointed Professor of Etching at the University of Arts in 1994 and elected Senior Fellow at the Royal College of Art in 2000. His work can be found in several British and American galleries including the Zillah Bell Gallery, the Tate, the British Museum and the National Gallery of Art, Washington. He has also appeared in several television programmes, the most recent being a feature in an episode of BBC’s Countryfile in 2017. His stamp is entitled St Kilda: The Great Sea Stacs.
Tracey Emin CBE is renowned for her autobiographical, confessional and often candid art, working with a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, needlework, film and photography. Born in Croydon in 1963, she studied fashion at the Medway College of Design and later printing at Maidstone Art College before obtaining a Master of Arts in painting at the Royal College of Art in London. She became a Royal Academician in 2007 and in December 2011 she was appointed Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy, being one of the first two female RA Professors along with Fiona Rae. She has exhibited and given lectures extensively throughout the world and is a Turner Prize nominee. Her stamp is entitled Saying Goodbye.
Grayson Perry CBE is particularly renowned for his ceramic vases but also works with printmaking, drawing and tapestry. He is an astute commentator on contemporary society and culture and there are often autobiographical elements in his work with images of his female alter-ego, Claire. He was born in Essex and did an art foundation course at Braintree College of Further Education before graduating with a Batchelor of Arts Fine Art degree from Portsmouth in 1982. He has written several books as well as prize-winning TV documentaries and was awarded the Turner Prize in 2003. His work is held in the collections of the Tate, Arts Council, Victoria & Albert Museum among others. His stamp is entitled Summer Exhibition
Hong Kong-born artist Fiona Rae has developed a distinctive style of work over the past 25 years, which is full of restless energy, humour and complexity and which has set out to challenge and expand the modern conventions of painting. She studied Foundation at the Croydon College of Art before gaining a BA Honours in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College in 1987. She has been shortlisted for the Turner Prize, served as a Tate Artist Trustee and became the first female Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy of Schools in 2011. She has exhibited extensively in galleries and museums throughout the world and her work is held in prestigious public and private collections. Her stamp is entitled Queen of the Sky.
Barbara Rae CBE is a Scottish painter and printmaker who studied at the Edinburgh College of Art and has taught art at the Aberdeen College of Education as well as at the Glasgow School of Art. She has received numerous awards for her art, with a number of works being displayed in institutions such as the University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow, British Museum and Whitworth Art Gallery. The Royal Academy of Arts’ magazine, RA, has described Rae’s works as “intense colour bursts that evoke dramatic landscapes but remain resolutely abstract… distilling the colour, light and forms of nature into dazzling visions”. Her stamp is entitled Inverleith Allotments and Edinburgh Castle.
Yinka Shonibare MBE is a British-Nigerian artist whose work explores cultural identity, issues of race and class through the media of painting, sculpture, photography and film. He studied Fine Art at the Byam School of Art (now Central Saint Martin’s College) as well as Goldsmiths College. A Turner Prize nominee, he was awarded a MBE in 2004. He has works displayed in prestigious institutions including the Royal Opera House, the Tate Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Museum of African Art and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. His stamp is entitled Queuing at the RA.
On June 29, 2018, in Hanover, MD, the U.S. Department of the Interior will issue the $25 Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation stamp for the 2018–2019 waterfowl hunting season. The stamp will go on sale nationwide June 29, 2018, and is valid through June 30, 2019.
