High school student-artists from across Los Altos and Mountain View compete for the opportunity to display their art in a professional setting each year in the annual Rotary Club of Los Altos Young at Art contest, but this year’s winners may take one step further by making their work available for purchase.
The Rotary Club recognized 21 emerging artists from five local high schools, with cash prizes of $150 and $100 for the first and second place winner, respectively, from each school. All winning works were first displayed at the club’s Fine Art in the Park event, held Aug. 13 and 14 at Lincoln Park. The artwork ranges in style from realism to abstract, in media including colored pencils, paint and digital art.
“A lot of people came through and admired and commented – they were astounded by the quality,” said lead coordinator for Young at Art Patricia Rohrs.
The winning selections are now on display at Nature Gallery in Los Altos, where owner Carol Garsten integrated the art among her current offerings. A reception honoring the winners is scheduled 6-7:30 p.m. Friday at Nature Gallery, 296 State St.
“When you make art for yourself it’s great, but when it’s seen, especially by your community, it has an impact on you and your art,” Garsten said. “I love to have artists meet people who have seen their work, because it encourages them not to bury their art.”
Student showcase
Los Altos High sophomore Joyce Ren won first place for her oil painting “Escapade,” which depicts a young girl wading through a creek. She purposefully imbued a sense of ambiguity in her painting so that viewers could take away several meanings.
“Someone can see it as adventurous, or maybe using something as an escape, or see playfulness or whimsicality, or even solitude,” Ren said. “That is what I was looking to express.”
Ren said having her work on display at public events for other art lovers to view was “surreal and cool,” noting that she has so often been the observer and is now in the place of the artist.
“Growing up, I could stay hours looking at people’s art in places like museums, just looking and wandering around,” she said. “So it’s really cool to be on the other side, and now I can really see what goes into making a piece like that.”
While Rotary Club judges honored Ren’s painting for its classic beauty and fine technique, the young artist seeks to explore more styles and methods in coming years, thanks in part to the support and recognition she has received from teachers and contests like Young at Art and NUMU Los Gatos’ ArtNow exhibition.
“I will definitely try to go beyond my comfort zone a little bit and try to incorporate more impressionistic or abstract elements, just because I think I’ve been in a stage of my own art development where I’m sticking to realism just because that’s what a lot of my foundation is focused on,” she said. “But in the future, I do want to get more into creative aspects or maybe something that can express a particular meaning through abstract elements.”
Rohrs, Garsten and Ren all recognized the value that in-person art events in which the community comes together to celebrate and discuss art holds, especially in a time post-COVID lockdown. Part of the reason Rohrs enjoys organizing the program each year is to promote trust among generations of Los Altos residents.
“I think a lot of adults think that teenagers are sort of frivolous. And maybe not that talented. But I like to highlight the fact that these kids are very serious,” Rohrs said. “They have strong emotions and they’ve found a way to express them, and I like getting that across to an adult audience.”
