Bayville Intermediate School

Locust Valley High School seniors Meghan Mandra and Clare Simon had their art pieces selected by the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County as gold and bronze level award winners, respectively, as part of its Student Art Competition.

Mandra’s green and golden floral piece and Simon’s forest scene painting will be featured in the cooperative’s 2023 Nassau Gardening Calendar and Guide as the December and October images, respectively. Both pieces will be displayed at the Family Fun Day at the CCE’s East Meadow Farm (832 Merrick Avenue) on Saturday, Oct. 1 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Mandra was inspired by artists Robert Kushner and Anne Salas and their use of botanical variety and gold in their works. She also tried to use materials that were already available in her art teacher Melanie Mooney’s classroom with the goal of conserving supplies. “For me the intersection of nature and art is important,” Mandra said. She made two layers of pink and blue paint before going over them both with green and attaching gold tin foil to the wood board surrounding the flowers.

Simon’s forest landscape piece will fittingly be used for the October section of the CCE’s calendar as the painting incorporates warm autumnal colors and leaves scattered on the ground. She added texture to the piece by attaching leaves, tree bark and grass from her own backyard.

“Many of my pieces are paintings that have something to do with nature, the earth, or the environment in general,” Simon said. “This was an exciting piece for me because I hadn’t done a full landscape before but I very much enjoyed doing it and I think I’ll be doing some similar things in the future.”

Both girls were grateful to their teacher Ms. Mooney for her encouragement through the process.