The art of greening
A group of students have won international recognition for their paintings which promote environmental protection and world peace.
Kylie Chung, Maggie Li In, Alvina Jane Ng, Elizabeth Elaine Au Chun-ning, Ann Ko Wing-ki, Coco Tin and Terence Leung Cheuk-yin are students at Simply Art Creative Studio in Prince Edward. They beat budding artists from around the world to take top awards in competitions that focused on nature, science and peace.
Kylie, nine, beat almost 20,000 participants aged seven to 15 from 54 countries to win the First Class Prize at the 2005 International Environmental Drawing Contest organised by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) of Japan.
Her painting, Blessing of the Earth, shows a girl kneeling on the last remaining green pasture and praying for the world to become a pleasant habitat for animals again.
'The girl has found the last piece of pasture on Earth, so she plants the last seed there,' said Kylie, a Primary Four pupil at International Christian School.
Her artwork will be exhibited in Japan and at the Unicef headquarters in New York.
'She looks sad as she worries about the world being destroyed,' Kylie said. 'I hope people will stop destroying this planet.'
Kylie's schoolmate Coco, together with Tak Nga Secondary School's Elizabeth, were among the 48 winners of the International Children's Painting Competition on Environment: Green Cities, organised by the United Nations Environmental Programme in June.
Their paintings were displayed at San Francisco's art and science museum, Zeum, from June to
August.
Terence, seven, won a Fifth Class Prize in the same competition.
Elizabeth, a Form Three student, won an honourable mention at the International Children's Exhibition of Fine Arts 2005, hosted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organisation to commemorate the second world war and the children who suffered. Her creation, Happiness, was among the 600 exhibits selected from 10,000 entries from 48 countries.
She also came second in the 13-16 age group at the Physics Across the World Poster Competition which celebrated the United Nations World Year of Physics and Einstein in July.
In the same contest, Eunice Leung Wing-yu, who is studying overseas, and Ann of Tseung Kwan O Government Secondary School came third in the 13-16 age group, while Alvina of Maryknoll Convent School (Primary Section) also took the third prize in the 8-12 age category.
Their instructors, Henry Lau Hoo-cheong and Lee Chui-fan, came second in the teaching awards.
Maggie, 18, who is taking a higher diploma course in fashion and textiles at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, clinched the grand prize at The Connected World international poster-design competition organised by the United Nations Refugee Agency in July.
