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Cairngorms

School art competition winners reach the top for Cairngorms Nature

15th May 2018

CairnGorm Mountain hosted the award ceremony of the Cairngorms Nature School Art Competition on Saturday (12 May) at a special event as part of the Cairngorms Nature BIG Weekend.

The competition is organised by the Cairngorms Rangers and over 250 entries were submitted across three age categories from 18 schools across the National Park.

The theme of the competition was ‘Mountains’ and the 31 shortlisted young artists, and their families, were invited to ride the Cairngorm Funicular up to top of the mountain for a special awards ceremony in the Ptarmigan Restaurant.  The prize giving was followed by a creative mask making session held by head judge and nature artist Celia Forestal Smith.

Lorna Adam from Natural Retreats said, “CairnGorm Mountain was delighted to welcome our young talented artists and parents for a fun afternoon of mask making, socialising and having fun. “

Head Judge Celia Forestal Smith said: “The range of entries was incredible, from sculptures to canvas paintings and models to collages, everyone who was shortlisted should be really proud of their artwork.  It was a very tough job to just pick one overall winner in each age group.”

The winners were:

  • Nursery-P3:         Ava Parmenter -Abernethy Primary School with a colourful drawing of Cairngorm
  • P4-P7:                    Philippa Rose Nott – Abernethy Primary School with a painting of a ptarmigan
  • High School:         Hannah Smart from Aboyne Academy with a tweed collage of a bothy

The winners all received an experience at the Strathspey  Badger Hide experience and a pair of binoculars

The competition was part of the Cairngorms Nature BIG Weekend which took place over the weekend (11-13 May).  The event is in its fifth year and always happens in the middle of May, thousands of people came out in the sunshine to enjoy over 60 events across the Cairngorms National Park and find out more about the spectacular nature that lives here.  For more information on the BIG Weekend and all the ranger events in the Park you can visit www.cairngorms.co.uk