Several art students recently participated in the annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Art Contest and many of them brought home ribbons, a medal and a trophy from the competition. 

The art of Gold Medal Winner Hannah Tait and Kevin Thompson, who won best of show, stayed in Houston for display during the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Third place ribbon winners include: Alexis Todd (11th grade), Jayda Wright (12th), Wavel Borja-Hebert (12th), Brooklyn Socia (12th), Morgan Fisher (11th). Second place winners and finalist ribbon winners are Kira Nash (12th), and Carlee Dupuy (10th), Gold Medal winner Hannah Tait (10th), Best of Show Kevin Thompson (12th), Caylee Aleman (12th), and Reese Cricchio (11th). Senior Nicole Workman was a first place and finalist ribbons winner. 

“I’ve been involved in art since I was a kid,” Workman said. “Most of my drawings were outside of school since I was not in art classes until high school.” 

The Houston rodeo Art Contest has a western theme. The students are given a portfolio to look through some photos for inspiration.  

“I was very surprised [to get first place], because personally, I wasn’t that content with how it turned out because I could see all the flaws it had,” Workman said. “I also haven’t had that much painting experience and am still learning.” 

The students are given 7-8 weeks to create their art piece. According to Workman, she didn’t begin her painting until the last three weeks of the contest. 

“There were quite a few things [on my mind in process of creating the art piece],” Workman said. “One was trying not to mess up and also staying motivated to finish the piece. There was a few times where I got discouraged when I messed up but the good thing about paint is that you can paint over your mistakes.”