8th grade Township student selected Top 10 nationwide in art contest
November 13, 2025An 8th grade North Brunswick Township Middle School student was chosen as a top 10 winner out of thousands of entries nationwide in his grade division in a contest sponsored by CelebratingArt.com and Blick Art Materials.
Connor Chan submitted an acrylic painting titled, “Boat on a Beach” which earned him contest honors. His art was in the 6th grade division as he was in that grade when he did the painting.
“I was not expecting it,” Connor said. “I thought the painting that I had entered in the contest looks better than the ones I sent in the past and was only expecting a high merit win but not the top 10 in the country.”
Art pieces are selected for their creativity, originality, self-expression, craftmanship and skill.
Connor’s dad, Steven, said this was Connor’s third submission to the contest and the last time he received an art of high merit recognition.
“I didn’t think it was a big deal until I saw the press release form letter that came with it,” Steven said. “Then I thought: He did good.”
Connor said his art teacher picked the topic for the contest, showing him some boats to paint.
“From those pictures, I sort of mold it around to see which angle would make it more dynamic and I slowly added more details to make it better,” he said.
Steven said Connor has been taking art classes and they have different mediums. Connor was strictly sketching about three years ago then a year later, his art teacher introduced him to acrylic painting.
Connor said acrylic painting is one of his favorite ways to paint.
“If you make a mistake, you can cover over it while if you do water colors, it tends to blend more and is harder to correct your painting,” he said. “Acrylics’ colors are also brighter colors and don’t fade as much as water colors.”
