WESTFORD CENTER — Congresswoman Lori Trahan recently announced that a Westford Academy student won third place in the 2026 Congressional Art Competition.
Trahan announced that rising senior Navya Katru received the third place award for her painting “Suspension” at the congresswoman’s annual art competition reception held at The Chelmsford Center for the Arts on May 6.
The winner of the competition for Massachusetts’ Third Congressional District went to Nate Kim, a junior at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School for his painting “Midsummer Indolence.,. Second place went to Yumeng Mia Li from the Groton School with her painting titled “The Wash.”.
Katru spoke with The Westford Villager following the competition and said she is a self-taught artist, who never took any formal art classes and began painting when she was a child. She moved to Westford from India last year and was seeking an opportunity where she could showcase her artwork.
Having never entered an art competition before, Katru began searching the web for local art shows. Following a thorough search, plus recommendations from her friends and art teacher, she discovered the Congressional Art Competition and submitted her painting, “Suspension”, which she had completed just months before.
Katru described the inspiration she had behind creating her painting, which she would later submit to the competition.
“I wanted to create something that showed a figure, a full-body pose — I was thinking about how I could show an emotion that a lot of people could connect to,” Katru said. “I’m also really passionate about increasing visibility for people of color and South Asian people — people who look like me — in fine arts, because I really don’t see that a lot.”
Katru explained that her award-winning painting was created within just two days, following a burst of emotions she was feeling at the time.
“I wanted to create a dramatic composition, something that would be striking to look at, something very vivid,” Katru said. “I was feeling some heavy emotions at the time and I think people can relate to that. I mean, we all have moments of exhaustion. But I also wanted it to have a hopeful element to it, which is why the lighting is at her shoulders. The fact that her shirt is emanating ‘coolness’ while the surrounding is looming red, it shows this sense of tension between oppression and residence — a sense of hopefulness and looming darkness — or the point before you overcome that obstacle.”
Inspired by artists such as Henri Matisse and Inès Longevial, Katru said the model in her painting is her sister, who she asked to pose on her bed. She said the painting was created using acrylic paint, following a technique known as “drybrushing”, which is used to layer on different textures.
“I started with a light underpainting and then I used lots of different colors, vibrant colors and tried to build it off of that,” Katru said. “First I had this light wash — sort of dry brushed painting — and then I glazed on a lot more paint so that I could make it more vibrant and have a lot more depth.”
Katru described the moment she found out she had won the third place award at the competition.
“That day I had a lot of schoolwork so I didn’t go to the competition, my sister did,” Katru said. “So my sister brought the certificate home and she told me that she won it — and I was very happy for her initially — and then she told me it was mine. I was really shocked. I didn’t expect that at all. I really just entered the painting so that it could get some more viewership, since there was a small exhibition. I was very surprised. It was amazing. The fact that (Trahan) posted it on her Instagram was also really big for me because I’ve never won a competition before. It was very encouraging to me as an artist — and just as a person, after moving here. That recognition felt really encouraging to me and I felt that Westford and the community could be a really great place for me as an artist and as a person.”
Katru, who is currently enrolled in pre-college courses at the Rhode Island School of Design, hopes to attend art school after her graduation from Westford Academy next year. She then wants to pursue a career as a painter or art teacher.
Sponsored by the Congressional Institute, the Congressional Art Competition is a nationwide high school visual art competition held every spring recognizing and encouraging young artists in each congressional district to showcase their skills and talent.
“Every year, this competition reminds me just how much talent we have right here in the Third District,” Trahan said, following the competition.
According to organizers, over 700,000 high school students have participated in the competition since it began in 1982. Students who wish to participate can submit their entries to the office of their local congressmember, with the winning entries selected by panels of local artists.
This year’s winners were selected by a three-judge panel consisting of Sara Bogosian, president and executive director of the Whistler House Museum of Art in Lowell; Eileen Williston, executive director of The Umbrella Arts Center in Concord; and Emily Mazzola, curator at the Fitchburg Art Museum.
The winners are then recognized both in their district and at an annual awards ceremony in Washington D.C., with the first place entries being displayed for one year in the U.S. Capitol. Winners are also invited to a celebratory reception in Washington D.C, which took place in June.
