The Miller Plant Farm Art Contest is back again this year, and two students have returned to compete.

Starting mid-November, a team of art students from each of the surrounding local schools take a few weeks to construct a large mural of a winter-themed landscape.

Juniors Stevie King and Sammi Patterson have teamed up for this year’s winter competition and have spent the past couple of weeks creating a display of a log cabin surrounded by snow and magical lights.

“[The art contest] is just a bunch of schools painting a 7’x10’ canvas of holiday scenes, and donating them to be judged by the public,” said King. “The votes are $0.50 a piece, and anyone who goes to the farm can go see the painting and submit their votes.”

Other schools that are participating this year include North Eastern, York Suburban, Spring Grove and Kennard Dale.

The art team won first place in last year’s contest, but unfortunately didn’t win this year’s contest. Last year’s team consisted of Rachel Miller, Dan Pergrin and Stevie King. This year’s team only consists of King and Patterson.

Patterson is new to the contest, but overall found the project to be fun and enjoyable.

“I think the [mural] turned out pretty well considering the time limit we had, which was around two weeks. We actually started it kind of late, but it still turned out nice. It was fun,” said Patterson.

The first place winner of the contest gets all of the money that was donated from voting. Last year’s prize rounded up to be over $200.

Art teacher Wesley Myers has taught both students since their freshman year of high school and is proud to see the girls go far in the competition.

“I thought it was a good piece. For Stevie, it was a bit of a continuation from last year’s piece, in terms of the theme and the size. For Sammi, it was a little bit new in terms of the scale. But I thought they did a nice job coming up with the idea and composition,” said Myers. “The Miller Plant Farm started 5 or 6 years ago, and it’s their way to get the local art departments involved. It’s just a fun activity to get their customers to both shop around in their store and look at art projects.”

North Eastern was announced the first place winner of the contest on December 19, while Susquehannock’s team ranked second.