12 Cork children win big at Texaco art prizes

CORK was well represented at this year’s Texaco Children’s Art Competition. 12 students won top prizes in the 70th edition of the annual event.

In the 9-11 age category, Philippa Costello, age 10, a pupil at Watergrasshill National School, won second prize for her work, ‘My Community’.

Her artwork was described by final adjudicator, Gary Granville, professor emeritus of education at the National College of Art and Design, as “an abstract work, through an unusual lens, in which her mapping of her community is both delightful and insightful”.

Meanwhile, in the six-years-and-under category — the youngest age group in the competition — Sofia-May Kenefick, age 6, scooped third prize for her work, ‘The Emotion Picture’.

The Blarney Street CBS pupil’s work was described by Professor Granville as a piece that “compressed a world of emotions within a series of miniature images”.

In addition, 10 Cork artists each won special-merit awards for works that Professor Granville said “demonstrated high levels of skill and imagination”.

They were Darragh Woods, 14, and Aimee Lombard, 14, both pupils at Coláiste Choilm, Ballincollig; Alexandra O’Brennan, 16, from Christ King Girls’ Secondary School, South Douglas Rd; Abimbola Fashade, 14, from Glanmire Community College; Vihaan Manne, 8, from Mary Murphy School of Art, Carrigaline; Lily Atkinson, 15, from Our Lady of Good Counsel School, Ballincollig; Moya Dennigan, 12, from Gaelscoil Mhainistir Na Corann, Midleton; Aoife O’Regan, 16, from Coláiste na Toirbhirte, Bandon; Keelin Ní Laoire, 18, from Scoil Mhuire, Béal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh in Ballingeary and Gael Taaffe, 17, from Skibbereen Community School.

The Texaco Children’s Art Competition is the longest-running sponsorship of art in Ireland, dating back to 1955.

This year, as has been the case throughout its life, organisers say it has been a “platform on which young artists from Cork and counties throughout Ireland have had their talents recognised and their creativity commended”.