Ava • 7 • Cork

Under 7 Category   •  2026
I picked this theme as I love animals, especially ducks. I find ducks fascinating, they are warm-blooded birds, but they also belong to the water-foul family. I love ducks as they can swim so beautifully in a lake and they can quack to communicate and have fun. I find ducks amazing creatures as they can fly to any place they would like to go. I love their freedom so much. I love looking at and sketching ducks as I find their webbed feet, broad bills and waterproof feathers very interesting. I now know ducks are very social creatures that live in groups called paddlings. I learnt this by doing my research for this art competition. I decided on the name Jeff as it is my favourite name for a duck! The meaning of Jeff is 'God's peace' or 'pledge of peace'. I have learnt that a duck is God's creature and to me it brings peace when I see one especially swimming or diving in the still waters of my local lake. Sometimes there is a rainbow too which makes me feel very happy. The materials I used in my art work are simply ink and pastels. The process for my art creation is brainstorming ideas from nature, picking my favourite animal, developing my pencil skills or roughly sketching a duck, choosing my materials and adding detail to make my art piece unique to me.