Katie
Lyle |
Eleven-year-old Katie Lyle said techniques learned from
a long-time art series on PBS television helped her capture
first place in the 2008 Missouri Arbor Day poster competition.
The St. Peters girl won the state award from among over
1,600 entries from 5th graders across the state of Missouri.
Each year, the Missouri Department of Conservation and
the Missouri Forestry Council invite 5th grade students
to enter a contest to pick Missouri's entry in the National
Arbor Day poster competition.
Katie said her entry started as a project for her Early
Bird Art Club at Lewis and Clark Elementary School. Then,
art teacher Diane Papageorge selected her poster to be the
club's entry in the state contest.
The late artist Bob Ross hosted a public-television series
entitled, "The Joy of Painting" 1983 through 1995. He died
even before Katie was born. But, his shows continue to play
in syndication.
The half-hour TV shows are aimed at helping both kid and
adult artists unlock their artistic skills. Each show seeks
to explain a single artistic technique.
His website (www.bobross.com)
promises that "with a little dedicated practice, masterpieces
that you never dreamed possible will flow from your brush."
Katie said the trees that were the main part of her winning
poster were modeled after trees that had been painted by
Ross. Landscapes, wildlife and florals are popular themes
for Ross' shows.
Katie said she got interested in painting when visiting
her grandmother, who is an amateur painter.
The theme of this year's Arbor Day poster contest was "Trees
are Terrific…Inside and Out."
Katie said that means that trees are a benefit when they
are alive as well as when they are cut down. She said live
trees create oxygen and "provide shelter for animals and
bugs."
Katie's
poster |
When cut down, the trees provide wood for a variety of
useful things, she said.
Katie's trees in her poster are a unique type of evergreen.
Rather than being straight and fully branched, her trees
have crooked trunks with relatively sparse branches.
The trees are widely spaced in a prairie of grass and smaller
shrubs.
For winning the Missouri poster contest, Katie received
a $50 savings bond and her entry was sent along to the national
competition. She said she didn't win in the national contest
but her state winning poster is on display in the national
Arbor Day museum in Nebraska City, Neb.
She also got a chance to visit Jefferson City when Gov.
Matt Blount signed the Arbor Day proclamation.
Katie
with tree on the school grounds |
Also, a delegation of state and local officials came to
her school to plant an Arbor Day tree in her name on the
school grounds. She was presented to a student assembly
where she got classmates' applause.
She also attended an alderman's meeting where her art poster
honor was recognized.
Her poster contest win also was featured in an article
in the May issue of the Missouri Conservationist magazine.
That's the official publication of the Missouri Department
of Conservation.
Katie
Lyle and parents at student tree-planting assembly |
In that article, Katie said, "I feel honored that my poster
was chosen out of entries from all across the state."
The Arbor Day tree planted on the grounds of Lewis and
Clark Elementary was a bald cypress, a tree native to Missouri.
She and her family have a bald cypress in the backyard of
their St. Peters home.
Katie said she hopes to continue her interest in art and
wants to continue to learn from her elementary school teacher,
Ms. Papageorge.
She said she's planning to take part in a three-week art
camp at the Art Foundry Museum in St. Charles this summer.
The camp will include lessons in painting, sculpture and
mixed-media art.
In March, one of Katie's paintings from school was on
display at the Art Foundry Museum. That painting was of
flowers painted in the Van Gogh impressionistic style.
She said she hopes to take private art lessons from Ms.
Papageorge next school year.
Katie will be a 6th grader at DuBray Middle School in St.
Peters this fall. Katie has been a straight-A student in
elementary school.
She said she didn't have too much interest in the outdoors
until the poster competition.
But, this spring, she took part in her school's 5th grade
camping trip at the Cuivre River State Park north of St.
Peters.
She said she liked the overnight camping in cabins at the
park.
And one of her activities involved an assignment to paint
trees found in the park.
Katie said she'd like to have a career either as an artist
or a singer.
She has been a member of a school choir during most of
her elementary school years. She's also played in the school's
percussion ensemble.
