Sun shines brightly for Summer

If a star is born, so, in almost every case, is an artist.

Very few, however, get both options in their DNAs – artists who will be stars.

But one who is already well on her way is 16-year-old Summer Lewis, who has just taken out the $500 people’s choice award at The Foundry Art Space’s 2026 Nature Speaks competition – by an overwhelming margin.

Inspired by her grandparents and their Tongala dairy farm, Summer painted a remarkable close-up of a Holstein cow called Kristabel – turns out every cow on her grandfather’s farm was named Kristabel Something.

However, the Steiner school graduate – Steiner schools are an alternative educational institution focused on a holistic approach of educating the ‘head, heart, and hands’ by integrating academics with the arts, music, practical crafts, and outdoor education – hasn’t just painted a cow, she has invested countless hours in creating a painting with serious personality.

You would swear Kristabel the cow is looking right at you, her whole face seemingly coming out of the painting.

While she is happy with the finished piece, Summer admits she replaced the background at least three times – discarding haystacks, bush, even some fire – as she worked to reflect the competition theme of nature speaking.

“In the end, I realised it was all about Kristabel, so the rolling paddocks fading into the background complement her rather than competing with her,” Summer explains.

“It’s an oil work, I do mostly oils now although I have tried acrylics, but I keep coming back to oil and that works best for me right now,” she says.

“I have been doing art all my life, I started out drawing, and that really developed at the Steiner school, but when I first started selling my art it was mostly pet portraits (which were selling up to $100) but now I have moved onto larger canvases and commission work.”

She isn’t kidding either – her larger canvases are now priced at four figures, and have sold, and she is in the middle of a $1500 commission and a sneak peek at progress so far is also seriously impressive.

Her award-winning work is on the market for $2400 and if not sold here will return with her to Ballarat to be offered in a venue there.

As well as painting, Summer does sculpture and holds down a part-time job as well (albeit with a professional artist).

Self-taught, along with plenty of YouTube tutorials, and has turned to the good old world wide web to expose her to all sorts of art to help broaden her awareness and outlook.

And in the meantime, the family kitchen doubles as her studio, with her larger and ever larger artworks going up on her easel as the next inspiration spreads across the canvas.