Three times was a charm for Artemis fourth grader Charlotte LeVere as she was selected a district finalist at the Huntsville City Schools Superintendent Art Show on Dec. 9.
Her artwork was one of 10 selected to represent Huntsville City Schools in the elementary division at the State Superintendent Visual Art Show in Montgomery. LeVere won the competition in the first grade and finished as a district finalist again while in the second grade. Her artwork will hang in the State Capitol.
"I feel amazing because it is the third time in four years that I have been selected as a representative," LeVere said. "I'm looking forward to going to the Capitol to see it."
LeVere's winning artwork was a collaboration between she and her art teacher Mrs. Bradford. Bradford wanted to challenge LeVere with this piece, so they used Charlotte's strength with watercolors, and added other mediums to the painting to add more complexity. Together they chose the cardinal because of the approaching holidays and its bright and vibrant colors. The medium of the artwork is watercolors, charcoal and pastels.
"I started by sketching out the tree and the cardinal. Next, I added brown watercolor to the tree and had to mix black, green and yellow watercolors to create the background," LeVere said. "I then started adding red, orange and a little yellow watercolor to the different parts of the cardinal. After completing the watercolors, I used charcoal to shade and create texture to the cardinal and the tree. Finally, I used green, yellow and white pastels to create the leaves and trees in the background."
Art is year-long hobby for LeVere. She takes art lessons and enjoys doing abstract paintings.
"I mask off areas with paper, tape them in place and create patterns of different colors," LeVere said. "I do this on canvas and I've also done this on glass doors in our home to create a pattern looking like stained glass windows."