LA GRANDE — Next time you are at the La Grande Farmers Market, you will probably see on display a bold and beautiful promotional poster created by student artist, Preston Mouritsen, the winner of the 2024 Farmers’ Market poster contest.

Mouritsen, a sophomore at Union High School, is the son of Thomas Mouritsen, nurse anesthesiologist at Grande Ronde Hospital, and Candice Mouritsen, a broker with High Country Realty Professionals.

He created the winning poster toward the end of last year in time for the 2024 market season.

“My art teacher, Mrs. Jaime Gustavson, told our class that we have an opportunity to earn some money and make a poster for the farmers market, so everyone in the class started to do their rough drafts,” he said.

He spent about two hours on the rough sketch and three more hours painting the final draft. When Mouritsen turned in his final draft, his teacher suggested that he submit it to the contest. Mouritsen made some prints for submission and waited two or three weeks.

Considering the passage of time and no word yet, Mouritsen thought nothing was going to come of his submission and that someone else won the contest.

“Then my art teacher called my mom and told her I won the contest,” he said. “I was really excited.”

Mouritsen was inspired to create an image of Mt. Emily in the background and locally grown fruits and vegetables in the foreground of his poster.

“I like to paint with acrylics, my favorite medium, and my style of painting is realism,” he said. “I especially like to draw animals and landscapes.”

Mouritsen has always enjoyed drawing since he was about 4 years old, but in recent years, he has branched out to painting with acrylics.

This is the first time he has entered an art contest and his first award. In this case, it meant a prize of $100. He said he is saving it for his post-high school plans.

As a member of Future Farmers of America, Mouritsen will record this contest and award on his personal FFA webpage, the beginning, he hopes, of many more achievements at Union High School.

La Grande Farmers Market

The La Grande Farmers Market is held Tuesdays from 3-6 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon at Max Square in downtown La Grande.

The market opened in May and continues through October.

For more information, visit lagrandefarmersmarket.org or check the page on Facebook.