Jenks High School Student Wins Statewide Award For Life-like Owl Painting

A Jenks High School student is the winner of a statewide art competition for her life-like painting of an owl.

Junior Ann Gao entered her watercolor and acrylic painting of a great-horned owl into the 2023 Sutton Art Award contest as a way to get her work out there, never thinking it would win.

The award presented by the George Miksch Sutton Avian Research Center and Nature Works recognizes high school students in Oklahoma who demonstrate the ability to communicate conservation topics in compelling ways.

Gao took home first place in the 2D category, winning $1,000 and the opportunity to have her artwork displayed at the NatureWorks Art Show back in March.

Gao grew up in China and said opportunities like this were not available to students. She moved to Jenks in middle school and said at first, she struggled with mental health and felt like she had no purpose. 

"I started drawing during that darkest time and at first, to be honest, it was not that good because I could not put my mind into it for some reason," Gao said.

However, once she began to immerse herself in art class, Gao realized her passion and credits teachers like Shelley Olds for that.

"I like to teach realism," Olds said. "I show them some of my artwork and I show them how to do these certain techniques and she really grabbed on to that and she became better, and better, and better with each piece."

Gao added, "All of my thoughts are still going on in my head, but slowly when I draw every single day, I can immerse myself more and more into the process."

Through those art classes at school, Gao said she learned all the principles and got to try different mediums. That is when she fell in love with painting, an outlet that also helped her gain confidence and express herself.

"Art is a way for me to communicate," she continued saying, "It is a very subtle way. It is like you may not want people to know everything you are saying, but you know you have said it, so you are satisfied and now it is up for them to interpret."

Olds said as a teacher it is incredible to watch her student's growth. "There are sometimes that students want to say something, and they do not know how to verbally say it, but you put some paper in front of them and some paint or some graphite pencils and you have them just kind of flow it into the paper," she added.

Gao said the owl painting was a Christmas present for her mother who loves owls, and since she won the contest with it, she decided to give her the contest winnings.

You can find Gao's work and other winning pieces on the Sutton Center website.