Art Student Shines in Oxtrail Competition
Second Form student Miruna Dinu’s exceptional artwork earned her first place in the School’s competition to design an ox as part of Sobell House’s Oxtrail fundraiser. Curious about the inspiration behind her winning design, and keen to find out how she felt when she learned the exciting news of her success, we spoke with Miruna to learn about her artistic skills.
Can you tell me a little bit about the design of your OX? where did your inspiration come from and how did you think of what to paint on it?
The colours of the ox are blue and yellow and represent the Ukraine flag. The ox also has a floral pattern on it, with two different shades of blue and yellow accents. I love flowers, so the floral design came from that.
How long did it take you to do?
The actual drawing/sketching on the bull took a few one-hour sessions over a couple weeks. I also took the bull home with me for a while and I painted on it every day, so probably in total it took a few weeks.
What did you find to be the most enjoyable part OF the process?
I really liked watching it all come together because at the beginning when I looked at it, I remember thinking how hard it was to see what the end picture is going to look like. Once I started adding different colours of paint, it started looking like the design I had in mind and came to life. It was really exciting to see the progress.
Did you face any difficulties while working on your Ox?
One of the main difficulties I found was copying my design onto the ox, as obviously it is a completely different scale and is 3D, so it was difficult to estimate where things would be. I think that I overcame this by taking my time on it and not rushing.
Do you think that there is something new that you’ve learned from this competition?
Yes, I wasn’t very good at painting before now, but the precision and the little lines I had to paint on the ox has helped me with my confidence in painting. I had to make sure that it didn’t look too textured or have several layers, so the first time painting it had to be good. I also learned how to scale my work and get the proportions correct.
What happened if you made a mistake?
Overall, I didn’t really make any as I made sure to take my time. But, when sketching the design on the ox in pencil, if I did make one, I could just rub it out. I did make a small mistake when I was painting, but I used a white emulsion which could sort of erase it slightly.
How did you feel when you found out you won the competition?
I was very, very excited and really proud. I’ve never won any art competitions before, so it was really exciting to know that people will know that it was me and my name will be next to the design. I was a bit worried whether I would be good enough to make the ox look good, but I tried my best and I am happy with how it turned out.
We also received valuable insights and background information about the Oxtrail Learning Programme from Ariya Nair, Relationships Fundraiser at Sobell House Hospice, who kindly answered some of our questions:
What do you believe the students who take part gain from participating in the Oxtrail?
Students gain the understanding that giving some of their own time can make a world of a difference to local people with life-limiting illnesses. Not only is OxTrail an art and fundraising project for students, it is also an enormous community engagement project that dedicated students can use later on in life with university and job applications.
how successful has the learning programme been?
Through OxTrail Learning Programme alone, Sobell House has reached over 37,500 young people throughout Oxfordshire. We are so grateful to each and every, teacher, parent, caregiver and student at all of our OxTrail schools and youth groups that have helped Sobell House increase our profile in such an extraordinary way. Most of these relationships are completely new to Sobell House so we are really looking forward to growing them and encouraging students to continue to support local charities like ours.
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