For anyone tracking the East End’s next famed artist, the search may be over. A seventh grader from East Hampton Middle School is off to a great start.
Lily Limonius won the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons annual holiday card contest this month, and it’s not the first time her work has been spotlighted by a local nonprofit.
For the ARF Contest, young artists in grades six through 12 were invited to design the organization’s official holiday card featuring one of its adoptable cats or dogs. Jamie Berger of ARF said the nonprofit received more than 30 wonderful submissions and selected Lily’s painting of Tango and Piper.
“They gave you a list of pets we could draw or paint — and I picked those two,” Lily said. “The dog [Tango] looked like my dog, Max, who also came from ARF, so I thought it would be fun to paint, and I picked a cat [Piper] that looked good.”
Lily’s name and artwork are now featured on ARF’s 2025 holiday card. She also won a $100 gift card to the Golden Eagle, a framed print of her winning design, and a sweatshirt. Her art also appeared on ARF’s social media pages, website, and in its newsletter.
Last summer, Lily designed the T-shirts for the Clamshell Foundation’s 34th annual Sandcastle Contest, a stunning round sunset and surf wave design.
She’s already been recruited to design the art for ARF’s Bow Wow Meow Ball in August of next year. And she’s in good company; last summer’s artwork was created by the celebrity fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi.
Lily also participated in the Springs Improvement Society annual members show which takes place at Ashawagh Hall over Memorial Day weekend.
Her artistic talents aren’t limited to the page. In March, she’ll play Jasmine, the female lead in East Hampton Middle School’s musical production of “Aladdin.”
But sketching was her first love. Lily’s mother, Justine O’Mara, says her daughter has been drawing for years.
“We have things of hers from when she was 4 years old and we were like ‘wow.’ She did it all on her own,” said Ms. O’Mara. “She started off drawing dogs. And then she started drawing landscapes. Now, she’s drawing people.”
When Ms. O’Mara says “drawing,” she means her daughter was hired to draw. This holiday season Lily was commissioned to do a portrait of a local couple. She’s been working with Linda Capello, a classically-trained master of figure drawing. “She’s helped me a lot,” Lily said. “I’ve learned how to do more depth of drawing from her and she’s been teaching me a lot.” And she may just follow in Ms. Capello’s footsteps. “I do it for fun, but I think I’ll definitely have something to do with art when I’m older as a career,” Lily said.