Despite taking only a few minutes to create in the classroom, fourth-grader Nicole Suelter had to wait four months to discover her painting had been judged the Sweepstakes Winner in the annual Kern County Fair Children’s Art competition. Artwork had to be submitted in May to be eligible for the contest in which entries are displayed and judged each year during the September-October Kern County Fair. The announcement of Suelter’s success came during the Sept. 30 awards ceremony held in the fairgrounds’ Harvest Hall in Bakersfield. Suelter was a third-grader at Almondale Elementary School when she painted her winning acrylic picture, “Orchids,” using a Sumi-e painting style just introduced in class that day. She now attends North Beardsley Elementary. Suelter said it took her “a couple of minutes” to paint and that she was “shocked” that her teacher wanted to enter it in the contest. More