Joyce Wang, from the New Jersey Sunshine Studio, recently won Silver Award with $ 1,000 in the 2015 Ocean Awareness Student Contest.

This year the theme of Ocean Awareness Student Contest is exploring plastic pollution in Oceans. Each year the contest invites high school and middle students to dive into a timely ocean environmental topic. Since it’s inception in 2011, contest submissions have grown by over 50% annually with submissions from more than 15 states plus Canada. After the Sunshine Studio teacher heard of this contest, he encouraged Joyce to participate because she had learned drawing there for two years.

Joyce is a 15-year old high school student. Although she was interested in drawing a long time ago, she officially started learning from basic sketch when she came to Sunshine Studio at age 13. Before that, she had never received any full training in drawing.

At first, she learned sketching, and then the color pencil, acrylic painting, etc. All the techniques went through the steps of boarder and structure outline, positioning, composition and coloring.   After mastering the essentials of drawing with different materials, she greatly improved. In the process, she also learned to infer use one strategy in another artwork.

In addition to participating in this contest, another artwork of hers was published in 2015 Celebrating Arts Contest.

Chinese families generally focus on their children’s education. A lot of Chinese parents hope that their kids can master a few things. Joyce’s mother said that she chose Sunshine Studio because the teachers have a deep knowledge of drawing. They have been drawing teachers for more than 10 years. When the teachers have classes, their patience, detailed and individual guidance are shown.  Based on every student and their ability, the teachers guide them differently. As a result, the students can understand and improve quickly.

Drawing can help children express their rich inner world, showing their dreams and love. Parents finding great teachers for their kids would give wings to their dreams. ◇

爲孩子的夢想插上翅膀

——陽光畫室學生獲全美關懷海洋學生繪畫大賽銀獎

新澤西陽光畫室學生Joyce Wang日前榮獲2015年全美關懷海洋學生繪畫大賽（Ocean Awareness Student Contests）銀獎，並獲獎金1000美元。

全美關懷海洋學生大賽本年度的主題是“關注塑料制品對海洋的汙染”。該大賽始于2011年，面向初中和高中學生，每年參賽人數以百分之五十的速度遞增。陽光畫室的老師得知這一訊息後，鼓勵學習繪畫僅有兩年時間的Joyce參與比賽。

15歲的高中生Joyce外表文靜清秀，盡管她的內心對繪畫一直有著濃厚的興趣，但直到13歲她來到陽光畫室時，才從最基本的素描開始學起。在此之前，她從未接受過任何系統的繪畫訓練。

Joyce首先學習素描，接著又學習了彩鉛畫、丙烯畫等，每一項都是從零開始，經歷造型、構圖、色彩等步驟。在掌握作畫的要領後，她的觀察能力、找型能力、配色能力及對於空間的感受能力獲得很大提升。在這個過程中，她也學會了舉一反三，觸類旁通。兩年來，在畫室老師的悉心指導下，Joyce成績斐然。

除了參加本次大賽獲獎之外，Joyce另外的作品還入選了今年美國優秀學生作品畫冊春季版「CelebratingArt」，該畫冊也被稱爲北美藝術慶典畫冊。

華人家庭一般都非常注重對孩子的教育，培養出一個多才多藝的孩子是很多華人家長的願望，而藝術對于陶冶孩子們的性情有著莫大的助益。Joyce的媽媽說，她認准了陽光畫室科班出身、繪畫功底深厚的老師，十幾年的教學經驗十分豐富。老師教學時耐心細致，個別指導，因材施教，對孩子的基本功和技巧傳授很到位，孩子能夠很快領悟老師的要求並一步步跟隨老師，提高的非常快。

繪畫可以幫助孩子們表達自己豐富的內心世界，展現出自己夢想和愛。家長們幫助孩子找到合適的老師合適的方法，會爲他們的夢想插上翅膀，飛的更高更遠。◇