St. Joseph students top Penta Paint Calendar Art Competition

Not far away at the Image Factory, the Penta Paint Up Di Place 2010 traveling art exhibition got underway. Forty pieces of art from budding artists from all over Belize are display; twelve of the pieces have been selected for a full color calendar that will be released next year. According to Penta, the competition garnered more entries this year but in the end Saint Joseph Primary School of Belize City distinguished itself with five of the twelve calendar spots. News Five’s Jose Sanchez spoke to the young artists today.

Jose Sanchez, Reporting

The Penta Paint Up the Art competition has transformed student drawings into colorful expositions for three years. The competition which culminates with a yearly calendar has received participation from many schools.

Gilvano Swasey, Judge

gilvano swasey

“We had three main judges—myself as a visual artist, Richard Holder as a photographer/commercial artist and Mister Carlo Habet who as a product promoter of the Penta Paints.  So we had three different eyes looking at it. We had close to two hundred entries from all over the country—Toledo, Corozal, all over. This year honestly, the primary schools really took it on. For the last two years, we’ve had maybe four or five primary schools trying to push in. this year we had over twelve trying to go for the twelve.”

joanna huang

Joanna Huang, Penta Paint up the Art

“I searched for many flowers, pictures of Belize, Belize is as beautiful as those flowers and we have many Cayes and the waters are very clean and beautiful.”

Jose Sanchez

“You used stippling that was your style right?”

Joanna Huang

“Yes.”

Jose Sanchez

“What made you decide to use that particular style?”

Joanna Huang

“Because I wanted to do something that’s different from everybody. I want to create my own style; I want to draw like other people don’t draw.”

Jose Sanchez

“And so it made you a winner.”

Joanna Huang

“Yes.”

Trinity Castillo, Winner, Penta Paint up the Art

“My art teacher told me about the competition and I wanted to go in it.”

Jose Sanchez

“Now what did you actually create? What was your art piece?”

Trinity Castillo

“The sea. I drew the sea.”

samuel sabido

Samuel Sabido, Winner, Penta Paint up the Art

“I wanted to portray Belize as it was. I wanted to portray my favorite things about Belize which are its natural features. And I wanted to put basic things about Belize because a lot of people say Belize is going bad, and a lot of crime is affecting Belize. But we have to remember that there are things that make up Belize like its physical features—the natural forest, the marine life, the ocean and the sea itself. And there are a lot of people that think that Belize is going to nothing, but actually when we look at things like tourism and patriotism you see that Belize is still a good country and a good nation.”

Jose Sanchez

“So you really put a lot of thought into your piece.”

Samuel Sabido

“Yes I did.”

The brother and sister team of St. Joseph Primary School students, Oscar and Noemi Flores, have captured the grand prize.

Oscar Flores, First Place Winner, Penta Paint up the Art

oscar flores

“I love to draw and paint and I just love it.”

Jose Sanchez

“What did you create? What did you put on your paper?”

Oscar Flores

“Wonderful and beautiful pictures of Belize—the national animals and sites.”

Jose Sanchez

“And your sister also, Noemi, why did you decided to be a part of this competition?”

noemi flores

Noemi Flores, First Place Winner, Penta Paint up the Art

“Well I like painting and drawing but mostly I like to paint because I get to use the colors and some colors are hard to mix or to get because they are natural colors that sometimes we don’t have or we have to create on our own. So basically I like painting more.”

Jose Sanchez

“Where did you get your inspiration? From your brother?”

Noemi Flores

“Well as I see it, I started drawing first and as I joined the art club, I started painting and we together he draw and I paint so I guess like teamwork.”

Gilvano Swasey

“The top eleven out of the top twelve gets a hundred dollars each. The top twelve, the winner overall gets five hundred dollars, the school painted completely no matter how big it is and of course the mural painted on the school. So they get total pride.”

Jose Sanchez

“All with Penta paints?”

Gilvano Swasey

“All with Penta Paints, the best paints.”

The calendar comes out in December. Jose Sanchez for News Five.