The culmination of weeks and, in some cases, months of hard work and creativity paid off Thursday as FASTFRAME in Valencia hosted the eighth annual Congressional Art Competition.

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Michaela Jenkins, 17, of Palmdale, earned the top honors, which includes a trip to Washington D.C., where she will have her artwork on display at the Cannon Tunnel in the Capitol.

Jenkins’ portrait painting of a great-grandfather earned a place among art from students across the country.

  The home-schooled senior was a first-time participant in the contest, and spent weeks working on her first-ever attempt at a watercolor portrait.

“I’d never met (my great-grandfather) before, it was done from a family portrait,” Jenkins said. “I used lots of layers of paint to achieve the right shades, and I had a lot of fun.”

Jenkins had been taking art classes for about nine years, and spent nearly 80 hours working on her winning entry.

She also submitted a watercolor of ducks splashing around a pond.

The life-like painting was selected as the best by several judges, including KHTS AM-1220 co-owner Carl Goldman; Margie Clark, a district representative for Congressman Howard Buck McKeon; two members of the Santa Clarita Artists Association; past winner Laura Penskay; and FASTFRAME co-owners Rose-Marie Longan and Randy Burzynski.

The FASTFRAME Valencia location also hosts the local Kids Art Contest every year, which has produced the national winner several times, Burzynski said.

“It just provides an opportunity for everybody, and it gives us, as local store owners, the ability to participate in the community,” Burzynski said. “We’ve hosted it for a number of years now.”  

McKeon enjoys perusing the winning entries from across the country when he walks through the Capitol, he said.

“I’ve been amazed by the remarkable talent that I have seen from our local students over the years for this competition,” McKeon said.

“The winning submission is put on display in our Capitol tunnel for all to see when they come to visit and I always enjoy seeing the artwork displayed as I walk to the Capitol,” he said. “I am looking forward to seeing this year’s entries.”

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