Japan painting contest honors Iranian children

The 2022 Kao Int’l Environment Painting Contest for Children in Japan has awarded three Iranian children from the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults.

The latest edition of the event received a total of 7,009 entries from all over the world.

Seven-year-old Selen Arami was awarded the Planet Earth Grand Prix for a painting on friendship between man, animal and nature.

“The people are looking after an injured giraffe together and the painting is filled with her thoughtfulness and adoration for nature. Overall, the painting looks shiny, embodying her strong wish for an ideal world and her hopes for the future. Giraffes are peeking through the trees, and it makes us realize that she is seeing plants and animals as equal creatures,” the jury of the contest commented on the painting.

Fatemeh Abiri, 10, also took home the Kao Prize for her painting titled ‘Angel of Nature’.

“The painting reminds us that there are beautiful moment and happiness in our ordinary life, which we are common to forget as we keep busy. The painting warms our heart as we stare at beautiful nature and the scene and it makes us wish that the happy scene in this painting will last forever,” the jury panel said.

The Jury Kei Matsushita Selected Award went to ‘Friendship’ by 10-year-old Kian Jamshidpour.

The jury panel commented, “A very persuasive work with a straight-forward message from the painter. It features an advanced technique, with the tree fruits and leaves drawn in primary colors yet creating one entire world.”

The Kao Group has held this contest annually since 2010, in the hope that paintings and thoughts expressed by children around the world, on their sincere consideration of the environmental conservation around them, the Earth and its future, will inspire people across the globe and lead to take action for changing lifestyles.

MM/FM