Meet Our
Esteemed Judges
Introduce the judging panel for the current year, highlighting their expertise and background in art and related fields.
Bhutan
Jharna Subba
Jharna Subba is a Bhutanese digital and traditional artist. She blends Bhutanese traditional art with modern contemporary styles, creating work that reflects both heritage and innovation.Her practice includes portraits, landscape paintings, and character designs, expressed with simplicity, depth, and creativity.
UK
Michelle Khoury
Michelle is a UK-based watercolour artist and designer with over 20 years of experience. As the founder of Bloomella, she creates bright, modern artwork inspired by nature, from florals and wildlife to playful illustrated designs. Her work has reached hundreds of thousands of customers worldwide. Michelle is passionate about helping others enjoy watercolour, sharing tutorials and creative content designed to make painting feel simple, accessible, and enjoyable.
Russia
Maria Agafonova
Maria is a Russian illustrator based in Portugal who loves working with classic patterns, cartoon characters, and sketchbooks. Her art combines traditional drawing with a playful style. She creates illustrations, character designs, and decorative elements inspired by patterns and folk motifs. When she's not drawing, she enjoys designing amigurumi toys.
Russia
July Che
July Che is a Russian artist working with oil pastel, oil painting, and graphic art. Through her work, she conveys the depth and beauty of everyday landscapes, using her own unique oil pastel technique in miniature formats while also creating large-scale canvases in oil. Her artistic practice combines traditional mediums with digital and applied art. She is also skilled in portraiture, bringing sensitivity, expression, and individuality to her works.
Finland
Riika Kandhola
I am Riika Kandhola, born in Finland, where creativity, independence, and child-led learning are deeply valued—shaping my view of art as a natural form of expression, not perfection.
Living between cultures has broadened my perspective, helping me value both structure and freedom in creativity. I believe that when children are given the space to explore freely, they develop confidence, curiosity, and a lifelong connection to creativity.
England
Saul Boyer
Saul is a British filmmaker, writer, and director, and a graduate of Cambridge University. He is the founder of Unleash the Llama Productions. and has produced award winning productions across screen, page and stage. The son of artist Lucille Dweck, Saul grew up surrounded by visual art and brings a keen eye for composition, colour, and visual storytelling to his work across film and stage. An experienced judge of creative competitions, he is delighted to be part of the Veena Vatika drawing contest and looks forward to celebrating the talent on display.
