One of our Year 7 students, Ayda Paterson (Year 7 Jade), is among the 30 finalists for The Lester Prize’s Youth competition for her amazing painting (pictured).
She is among the secondary school-aged children from around Australia in the running for Western Australia’s premier fine art prize, which was formerly known as the Black Swan Prize for Portraiture and is now in its 14th year.
Her painting is called Promise You Won't Forget Me Ever. It is a portrait of her brother Ruben, who passed away when he was nine months old. “She painted this as a present for me and Rob (her dad),” Ayda’s mum Alicia said. “She started drawing when she was about nine and I knew straight away that she had a gift. She then started attending weekly art lessons with Kapi Art space (in Kalorama) and has just blossomed since then.”
Ayda paints with oils and also uses soft pastels and pencils. She loves to draw and paint portraits and animals. “She's done a variety of commissions for people and is just getting better and better,” Alicia said. “She has an easel set up in her bedroom and likes to shut the door and just get lost in her artwork.”
Amazingly, Ayda submitted the painting into The Lester Prize of her own accord, “so it was a huge surprise for her to be selected as a finalist”, Alicia said. The Paterson family now have to send the painting to WA to be put on display in Perth and be judged. In usual circumstances, if she was chosen in the top three she would fly over for the announcement of the winner in mid-November, but this may not be possible.
We wish Ayda good luck for the competition!
Find out more about The Lester Prize HERE.
More than 200 young and aspiring artists from across Australia entered this popular portrait prize this year. A total prize pool of over $6000 is up for grabs with students in Years 7–12 awarded in three age group. Winners and runners-up will receive cash, gift vouchers and art supplies to help them further their art practice.
“These prizes will be of great benefit as these artists continue to build their skills in the art world,” said Annie Silberstein, The Lester Prize’s Executive Director.
The 2020 Youth Pre-Selection Panel commented: “It was great to see students extend their thinking, understanding and use of perceptual and conceptual skills in their artwork. There was a high prevalence of self-portraits in this year’s submissions — some pensive, a few fragmented. Many undertook to examine their own life, friends, family and culture — showing the development of a deeper understanding of their practice as an artist with individual views about the world and global issues.”
