The 12th Image-in-Asian Paint Out painting competition was held at India International School in Chantilly VA on Saturday April 27 in the afternoon. Majority of the preregistered participants and an unusually good number of walk in entries made it a very enjoyable and fun afternoon for the young artists and their parents. A total of 43 young boys and girls participated in the two age groups of 6 to 9 and 10 to 13 years.

Vanita Venugopal, whose idea it was to start such a competition way back in 2000 under the Image-in-Asian banner, announced the choices of subjects to the participants at the beginning of the competition. Volunteers from IIS along with many parents made sure that the kids had adequate supplies of paper, color pencils, crayons and water colors at their disposal. The help included Joyce Gouveia, Isha and Paresh Sharad, Sujeeth Konagalla, Sridevi Kawateker and Soumya Radhakrishnan. A half-time break with snacks and drinks made it more enjoyable for the youngsters.

Ms Kawatekar helped Ms Venugopal and Bala Chandran to determine the prize winners, which is always a difficult task, given the impressive talent the participants demonstrate. Winners were announced on Image-in-Asian Television on Friday May 3, 2013.

Following are the winners.

6 to 9 year age group:
First prize, 9-year-old Parnika Saxena
Second prize, 7-year-old Yashica Yogeshwar
Third prize, 8-year-old Niharika Arany
Cosolation prize, 6-year-old Hiya Mokati

10 to 13 year age group:
First prize, 11-year-old Bharathi Mathivanan
Second prize, 12-year-old Piya Wahi-Singh
Third prize, 13-year-old Arpitha Shenoy
Consolation prize, 11-year-old Marali Harikar

The judges gave a special prize for five-year-old Soumya Rajkumar's painting who happened to be accompanying her brother who had previously registered. Once she saw the many kids getting ready to show off their talent, little Soumya insisted that she be allowed to participate. Her talent was an eye opener for the organizers that they have decided to include five-year-olds from next year.

Vandana Bharadwaz handed out Certificate of Participation to each pre-registered child. The awards will be distributed at the India International School Annual Day on June 1, 2013 at the  Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia in Fairfax.

The $215 collected as registration fees from the participants were donated to the India International School building fund.