ANIMAL-loving art featured large in the contributions of five Limerick students who won top prizes in this year’s 72nd Texaco Children’s Art Competition.
In Category G of the Competition, 16-year-old Claire O’Malley, from Catherine McAuley School in Limerick, won first prize for her work entitled ‘The Amazing Tinks’.
Claire’s impressive artwork is described by final adjudicator – Irish visual artist, curator and educator – Pauline O’Connell as “an acrylic paint and wool collage combined in a confident and imaginative work”.
“The dog, rendered in soft chenille wool, introduces a rich tactile quality, while its proud stance and turned head bring personality and presence to the composition.”
In the same category, 13-year-old Blake O’Brien, also from Catherine McAuley School, won third prize for an artwork entitled ‘Year of the Bird’, said by Ms O’Connell to be “an abstract composition that, at first glance, suggests an organic form, almost like a cross-section of a pomegranate, but on closer inspection, a white bird begins to emerge, rewarding careful looking”.
A further three Limerick winners won Special Merit Awards for artworks that Ms O’Connell noted ‘were imaginative and demonstrated high levels of skill and creativity”. They are Camryn Franklin (17) from Ardscoil Rís; Victoria Ruskule (10) from Monaleen National School; and Michael O’Neill (16), another winner from Catherine McAuley School.
The Texaco Children’s Art Competition is regarded as the longest-running sponsorship in the history of arts sponsoring in Ireland, with an unbroken history that dates back to the very first competition held in 1955.