artist

Ohel Leah Synagogue

OLS: CONNECT

Kislev 5768 - December 2007 Hong Kong

ARTIST OF THE YEAR

by Sophie Saunders, 14 years

Text Box: This year for my school trip I decided I would like to go to the art village in Shenzhen. I knew that this would be an interesting trip and it would be a great experience. I got to Shenzhen late because unfortunately for me my mom forgot to pick up my visa. As soon as I got there I was welcomed by friends. On my first day of the trip we went to the artists’ village and we met the artists. They equipped us with all different sorts of materials. we each got a very large canvas, a set of 18 coloured oil paints, around 5-6 paint brushes, a wooden paint palette, some linseed oil, an easel, and a palette knife. These materials were all ours to keep at the end of the trip. The first day we spent planning out our paintings and starting of course, we only had two days to the painting so we had to get a move on! On the second day of the trip we continued our paintings basically all day because we had to finish them. By the end of the day I had made many mistakes and fixed them, I did finish my painting. That night the artists chose which painting they liked the best and the two winners got a professional easel with a drawer for your paints and materials. I won the competition. After this 'ceremony' we had 15 minutes to look around the village and go shopping I bought two big paintbrushes for only 12 bucks! Just before we left for Hong Kong we were asked by the artists to come back into the gallery they had some more gifts for us. We all got a couple more brushes, 2 boxes of professional oil pastels each, another canvas, a painting can, and a very special sketching pencil. the journey back to Hong Kong didn’t take long at all it was a very short ride in the car.
This trip was a very exciting and interesting experience. I enjoyed the trip very much and I think that everybody should go there. I strongly recommend it!