A Hilo-based nature and landscape artist got word Monday that his paintings of bonsai plants will become a U.S. Postal Service stamp series.

It’s not the first such recognition for John D. Dawson, who has been working with the Postal Service since the 1980s.

"I completed the stamps several years ago, so I was surprised when I got the call from the Postal Service that they would be announcing it," said Dawson, 73. "I was also told they would be ‘Forever’ stamps, and that was a surprise, too."

The stamps will be released next year, the Postal Service announced Monday, but an official date has not been set. "Forever" stamps are first-class stamps that are not affected by rate increases.

Postal Service Art Director Ethel Kessler, who has worked with Dawson on previous stamp designs as well as Honolulu artist Clarence Lee on the Lunar New Year stamp series, approached Dawson for the bonsai series.

"(Kessler) thought of me, possibly because of the Hawaii connection, and asked me if I was interested," Dawson said. Each painting took a few weeks to perfect, he said.

Dawson has been sketching for more than 50 years and has done artwork for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, National Geographic and Audubon Magazine, among others.

For Dawson, working on the bonsai stamp collection was a joy.

"I love doing stamps," Dawson said. "There’s nothing better than seeing these little images that you’ve painted — and the bonsai is something that people look at and enjoy, so it was so much fun to create as an illustration."

Dawson selected the five species of bonsai plants by studying different styles, attending bonsai plant shows on Hawaii island and listening to talks about the art of bonsai, Japanese for "plant in a pot."

"I also went through a lot of photographs and images until one fit," Dawson said.

The bonsai stamp series depicts a Sierra juniper, a trident maple, a black pine, an azalea and a banyan. They are modeled after plants 15 to 20 inches tall.

Dawson and his wife, Kathleen, have lived in Hilo for more than 20 years. His work at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park includes panels in the Kilauea Visitor Center featuring the nine ecosystems of the park.

Dawson’s relationship with the Postal Service began in the 1980s with the "American Cats" stamp series. In 1990 and 1998 he was commissioned to do the artwork for an Idaho Statehood stamp and a "Flowering Trees" series, respectively.

He considers the "Nature of America" series to be his most important artwork for the USPS.

The first of the series, released in 1999, featured a Sonoran Desert landscape. In 2010, a Hawaiian rain forest landscape completed the 12-stamp series featuring Dawson’s art.

"I’ve always liked the outdoors and did work in advertising for a while. It made a living, but it wasn’t a fit that I wanted to do so I started doing natural-history art," he said. "I had a couple of agents tell me that I was nuts, but I was bound and determined."