Three Drogheda students have won top prizes in this year’s 70th Texaco Children’s Art Competition.
In the 6 years and under age category – the youngest age group in the Competition – first prize was won by 4-year old Tadhg Traynor, from Rainbow Club, Drogheda, for his work entitled ‘Dog’.
His artwork is described by Final Adjudicator, Gary Granville, Professor Emeritus of Education at the National College of Art and Design as “just a joy in its vibrant and uninhibited expression.”
First prize in category G of the Competition was won by 18-year old James Moonan, a pupil at the Arthouse, Drogheda, for his work entitled ‘The Wren’s Nest’. According to Professor Granville his artwork is “both beautiful and awe-inspiring.”
A multiple previous winner, James also won first prize in Category G of the Competition in 2023, 2021, 2020, and in 2019, second prize in 2018, and Special Merit Awards in 2022 and 2017.
In addition, Doireann O’Neill (11), also from The Arthouse, won a Special Merit Award for her artwork entitled ‘The Alpha Bird’, which Professor Granville said ‘demonstrated high levels of skill and imagination’.
The Texaco Children’s Art Competition is popularly 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.
This year, as has been the case throughout its life, it has been a platform on which young artists from Louth and counties throughout Ireland have had their talents recognised and their creativity commended.
