WEST GREENWICH – It was a memorable afternoon for Chariho Middle School student, Miri Kim, as her painting was announced as the Best of Show in this year’s Federal Junior Duck Stamp competition in Rhode Island.

Kim, 13, of Charlestown, attended the event, which was held at Exeter West Greenwich High School, along with her family and teacher Solace Loven, who owns Lionheart Studio in Carolina.

"I’m on cloud nine, Miri is the best, and she worked so hard in class," said Loven.

Kim was overjoyed to have won the contest.

"It’s a thrill and my heart is pounding," said Kim. "I had no idea I was going to win."

Kim is one of 100 winners from around the country who submitted their art to the Federal Junior Duck Stamp competition.

There were 641 submissions of artwork done by students K-12th grade in the state.

Her art will be sent to the San Diego Zoo for national judging on April 17, then join the national tour if it is selected. The national winner will have his or her artwork used to create a Junior Duck Stamp. The stamps are produced by the U.S. Postal Service for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and are sold for $5 each. The proceeds from the sale of the stamps support conservation education programs and provide awards and scholarships for students, teachers and schools that participate in the program.

Kim began working on the painting three months before it had to be submitted on March 15.

She used acrylic paint and an extremely thin brush in order to create her outstanding painting that depicted a drake and hen mallard duck sitting in the middle of a pond.

"It took her 10 days just to paint the water," said Loven.

Kim’s mother, Chan Sook Kim, took more than 100 pictures of ducks in various places around the state such as Wickford Harbor and East Farm at the University of Rhode Island. They then picked their favorites with the help of Loven and combined different parts of them to create the painting.

Kim’s younger brother, Jung Kim, was also a first place winner in the contest and is an art student at Lionheart Studio as well.

Miri has been painting for 5 years and this is the first year she has participated in the contest.

She also received $100 from Technical Industries for winning Best of Show.

The winners of the contest were announced by Janna Greenhalgh, the manager of the Federal Junior Duck Stamp competition, and Nikolai Blinow who works at Roger Williams Park Zoo and helps organize programs that teach kids about wetlands and backyard ecology.

Greenhalgh is also the coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Volunteers in Rhode Island.

The winners are broken down into four groups according to grade level with group one being the youngest, with students from grades K-3. Kim was in the third group that was comprised of students from grades 7-9.

There were 1st, 2nd, 3rd place and honorable mention winners from several local schools such as Wickford Middle School and Exeter West Greenwich High School and Middle School.

The winner of the contest the past two years was Emily Walsh, a former student of art teacher Elizabeth Lind at Exeter West Greenwich High School.

Walsh has since graduated and is a freshman at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Lind, who is the acting chair of the Fine Arts Department at the school, has had her students participate in the contest for eight years.

"I started participating because the contest seemed like a good opportunity to use art for scientific illustration," said Lind.

She has a strong philosophy that it’s skill and not talent that allows students to create good artwork.

About half of the winners in the contest this year, and in past years, have come from Exeter West Greenwich High School, so her expert tutelage is working well for several students.

Apparently some of her teaching skill has benefited Lind’s daughter, Chloe Zoglio, who was one of the second place winners in the contest.

Zoglio is a student at Curtis Corner Middle School in Wakefield.

Before the winners were announced, the crowd was entertained by Henry Lappen. Lappen put on a show called "Birds in Their Habitat," where he uses masks to teach kids about all different kinds of birds.

He has masks and beaks that he puts on to imitate the habits and unusual behaviors of birds.

He asked audience members to come up on stage and help him demonstrate these behaviors by wearing the masks as well.

The large crowd appeared to love his funny show.