PCS Senior Isobel Espinor won the 2023 Congressional Art Competition - a nationwide high school visual art competition - for Oregon District 3! Her painting “The Metropolitan Area Express” has been selected to hang in the US Capitol tunnel along with winners from other states.

“I’m really shocked that I was selected as the winner for this competition. I only entered since it was free and didn’t even consider the thought of winning to be a possibility. I’m truly honored!” said Isobel. 

Her painting will be framed and shipped to Washington DC, and she will receive two airline tickets to fly there for the exhibit opening. 

We asked Isobel to share her inspiration for the piece: 

“My painting is made with oil on canvas and it was created for an assignment in my Junior year where we had to take a famous painting in art history and create a piece inspired by it both in subject and style. I chose the “Saint Lazare Station” by Claude Monet. It was my first time working with oils and painting in an impressionist style, but I’m proud of the result. 

I painted the MAX system because I thought it was similar to the steam engines Monet painted but characteristic of our city and generation. I chose to paint the scene on a rainy day to further the Portland atmosphere.”