Quick study tops art field

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Sweepstakes winner Nicole Suelter with her prize picture, “Orchids.”

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Some of the Kern County Fair Children’s Art winners were (front left) Nicole Suelter, Landen Kurtz, Melinda Quach, Joshua Valdivia, Shea Torrice (with Dad Dominic) and (back left) Alexander Clark, Rachael Metzger and Kristen Thomas.

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. When she learned that her painting had won the Sweepstakes, Suelter said she was “shocked again and amazed.”

“A Sumi-e artist showed my class a picture representing that Japanese style of art,” Suelter said. “He demonstrated the brush technique, and then asked us to paint our version. It took a couple of minutes for me to do that.”

Family friend David Tisler said the artist was surprised by both her speed and the result. “He said it was absolutely outstanding and that no student of his had been able to master the Sumi-e freehand flow of strokes as quickly and expertly as Nicole.”

Even though Suelter has been painting since about age seven, she did not initially realize how special her winning artwork was. “Painting is really easy for me,” Suelter said. “It is not something I have to work at, but I was shocked when my teacher (Katie Timmons) told me she was entering it in the Fair art contest. Then, when I heard I had won, I cried. When I came up on stage and they handed me the trophy, I cried again.”

Suelter said her dad is an accomplished artist, and she credits him with giving her an interest. She thinks his talent probably rubbed off on her. “Nicole’s desire to pick an object and start drawing was so good from the very beginning, that I started sending her pictures to relatives,” said Tammy Suelter, Nicole’s mom. “And then we started buying her the chalks, paper and other supplies she needed so she could have what was needed at home to get even better.”

Sponsored by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office (KCSOS), the annual competition promotes and showcases art created by public school children in special needs classes and students in preschool through eighth grade. First place and honorable mention ribbons are awarded at each grade level.

Every entry had to be original in both design and color. Only the top two or three from each classroom survived tough preliminary judging. The Fair Children’s Art Committee pared the submissions down to the final competitors. Fair judging took place on Sept. 22 with the artwork hung by grade level inside Harvest Hall once the fair opened on Sept. 23.

“We had approximately 500 entries,” said KCSOS Student Events Coordinator Christine Goedhart-Humphrey, who presided over the awards ceremony. “Feel good that every one of you here today has already been a winner at both the school and district level. Only a select few can win at the Fair, and it was a hard decision for the judges who spent two hours just reviewing all the artwork before they actually began determining award winners.”



Kern County Fair Children’s Art results:



Sweepstakes Winner
Nicole Suelter — Almondale Elementary School



Preschool
1st — Shea Torrice — Rafer Johnson Children’s Center



Special Needs
1st — Manuel Vazquez — Rio Bravo Elementary
Honorable Mention — Dulce Gomez — Myrtle Avenue School, Luiz Mendez — Myrtle Avenue School and Faith Boone — Rio Bravo Elementary



Kindergarten
1st — Landen Kurtz — Bill L. Williams School
Honorable Mention — Roxanne Ortiz —Endeavour Elementary, Rigoberto Reyes —Morningside School, Samuel Andrade, Jr., — Valle Verde Elementary and Kaitlyn Cervantes — Bill L. Williams School



First Grade
1st — Cynthia Zamora — Morningside School
Honorable Mention — Emily Fuentes — Maple School, Alex Marquez — Downtown Elementary and Dahlia Mazariegos — Bill L. Williams School



Second Grade
1st — Faith Hood — Endeavour Elementary
Honorable Mention — Aurora Alejandre — Buttonwillow Elementary, B. J. Benavidez — Endeavour Elementary and Devin Gildner — Almondale Elementary



Third Grade
1st — Melinda Quach — Almondale Elementary
Honorable Mention — Richard Morales — Almondale Elementary and Chandler Paul — Maple School



Fourth Grade
1st — Joshua Valdivia — Morningside School
Honorable Mention — Johnny Kantin — Almondale Elementary, Maira Gomez, Maple School and Dallin Neeley — Pine Mountain Learning Center



Fifth Grade
1st — Rodrigo Ramirez — Valle Vista School
Honorable Mention — Miguel Padilla — Casa Loma School, Eunice Lim — Stockdale Elementary and Kyle Eubanks — Almondale Elementary



Sixth Grade
1st — Kristen Thomas — Almondale Elementary
Honorable Mention — Kayla Bowen — Almondale Elementary, Samantha Escobar — Endeavour Elementary and David Alvarez — Sequoia Middle



Seventh Grade
1st — Rachael Metzger — Edison Middle
Honorable Mention — Victor Angulo — Ollivier Middle and Vanessa Cisneros — Edison Middle



Eighth Grade
1st — Alexander Clark — Edison Middle
Honorable Mention — Jade Brogdon — Edison Middle, Dendie Powao — Almond Tree Middle and Eduardo Ramirez — Rio Bravo-Greeley School


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