Never having been to Britain, the young Moscow painter Olga Stolyarenko was hard put to create a work with a British theme in a recent painting contest for children.


But with the help of a British banknote bearing the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, a magazine photo of The Beatles and her mother's recollection of what Big Ben looked like, Stolyarenko, 15, worked for two marathon sessions and created an oil painting that won her first place out of hundreds of entries from across Russia.


Although winning the prize includes a meeting next Tuesday in Moscow with Queen Elizabeth -- the first reigning British monarch to visit Russia -- Stolyarenko seemed a good deal more excited about the free one-week trip to Britain.


"I was very happy. We invited some people over and had a little party," said Stolyarenko, as she sat next to her mother last week in the living room of the family's west Moscow apartment. "I have wanted to go to England for a long time -- to see the art museums, the galleries."


As for the audience with the Queen, Stolyarenko plans to study English etiquette and prepare a few questions.


"I've heard she is very serious but interested in painting," said Stolyarenko, a student at a special arts school in Moscow. "I might ask her questions like, 'How does a queen live? What is your country like?'"


The contest, funded by the pharmaceutical firm Wellcome Foundation Ltd., has received about 3,000 entries so far, said Jane Olsen, the company's territory manager based in Moscow.


"Unfortunately, the entries are still coming in," said Olsen. "Because of the delays in the Russian postal system, they are still arriving from the Far East."


A similar painting contest held in the United Kingdom attracted 4,500 entries from schoolchildren. The three British winners will join their Russian counterparts for a Tuesday meeting with the Queen at Moscow's School No. 20.


The competition is one of two projects related to the Queen's visit that are targeted at Russian students. In an effort funded by the British Council called "Letters from Britain," some 40,000 teaching kits are being sent all over Russia to help secondary students learn about modern Britain.


The Wellcome Foundation, which spent about ?45,000 on the project, has no plans to repeat the contest anytime soon because, Olsen said, "If we did it every year, people might get bored with the idea."


Stolyarenko and the other winners will go to Britain with ?150 in spending money, each accompanied by a Russian teacher. Aside from visiting art museums and the standard tourist attractions, Stolyarenko said she is looking forward to seeing Buckingham Palace.


"We don't have a queen or tsarina in Russia now, so this will be quite interesting to see how she lives," Stolyarenko said. "I don't know which is better, to have a queen or not."