A LOCAL reception student placed third in a national art competition recently for drawing a masterpiece inspired by the human brain.
St Joseph’s School Renmark student Jonah won third place in the prep to year 1 category of the Why I Love My Brain Creative Art Competition – run by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function (Brain Function CoE).
The art competition was part of Brain Awareness Week, which runs worldwide each March to increase awareness of brain research, and attracted more than 650 entrants judged by more than 60 brain researchers.
Brain Function CoE director professor Gary Egan described the artwork as “inspiring”.
“Despite COVID-19 and many schools teaching remotely, we had outstanding entries,” he said.
“It was delightful to see how primary school children interpret the human brain through art.”
Jonah said he was “surprised” with his result.
“I was really excited when I heard I came third in the country,” he said.
“I love art and I like to paint.
“I decided to use oil pastels, textas and paint and I used my favourite colours.
“At school, Miss Cole tells us that when we do ‘super learning’ our brains explode so I decided to paint an exploding brain and I was proud to come third.”
Jonah said he enjoyed entering the competition.
“Mr Reeks helped us with our pictures and it was lots of fun,” he said.
“He helped show me what a brain looked like and from there I was able to make something special.”