Meet the 12-year-old Hong Kong boy with nearly 100 international painting prizes under his belt
Kenny Lau, who recently took first place at a competition in Portugal, won his first medal at age four
Surrounded by pots of paint in his parents’ bright white art studio in the busy district of Jordan, Kenny Lau looks like any other 12-year-old boy in jeans and a red T-shirt.
But the young artist has won nearly 100 international painting awards since earning his first medal at a competition in the Czech Republic – at age four – for a picture of a tiger in the forest.
Last week, he took home first prize at the 18th International Meeting of Juvenile Art in Evora, southern Portugal; the week before, he was the youngest, bestselling individual out of 100 emerging artists at the Art Next Expo held at PMQ shopping centre in Hong Kong.
“I love art because it is my hobby,” Lau said. “You only feel pressure if someone forces you to do something, but I really love it from my heart, so it doesn’t give me any pressure.”
Lau paints for about half an hour every day, after finishing his homework, and in any spare time he has on top of that. He is constantly balancing the life of a regular schoolboy with that of a jet-setting young artist attending competitions across the globe, with his parents in tow.