By Jessica McGrath
The Kingaroy community is very proud of their little artists.
Kingaroy St John’s Kindergarten student Anastasia won the preschool/kindergarten category of the 2022 Independent Education Union -Queensland and Northern Territory Excellence in Art Design Awards.
“Drawing makes me happy,” Anastasia said.
Her winning artwork was of a flower with a little pot.
“I used water paints for the background and I put some coloured paper on it… into a collage,” Anastasia said.
Five of her fellow kindy students were excited to get highly commended mentions for their artworks.
Artistically talented students impressed the judges at the awards night held at the Queensland Multicultural Centre in Brisbane on 7 September.
There were more than 800 entries from students and teachers across the Queensland and Northern Territory independent education sector, with entrants submitting artwork with a theme of ‘new beginnings’.
IEU-QNT Branch Secretary Terry Burke said the competition judges were wowed by the calibre of entries across all age groups in response to the theme.
“The judges commended on the high standard of entries and the varied and creative interpretations that entrants brought to the theme,” Mr Burke said.
The IEU-QNT union established the Awards in 1994 to promote and encourage budding artists.
“Art is a very important area of learning in schools and kindergartens and IEU-QNT is proud to support students, staff and artists in Queensland,” he said.
“Award recipients are to be congratulated for their remarkable achievements.”
St John’s student Austin, 4, entered a painting of a house into the competition, while fellow kindy student Indy, 4, used acrylic paints, markers and crayons for a picture of geometric shapes.
Meanwhile, five-year-old Abby used salted water colours and a black marker flower for the artwork she entered in the competition.
“[I did] flowers and a whole lot of leaves and a vine hanging down,” she said.
“Paint and textas -those are the things I like doing art with.”