Children’s Art Competition delivers through the pandemic

While the 66th Texaco Children’s Art Competition has taken place with less hullabaloo than usual, the entries still poured in. This year, the judging was delayed by the onset of COVID and the usual award ceremony did not take place, with the prizes sent directly to the winners’ homes.

Still, over 25,000 artists from across Ireland sent in their entries for six age categories, ranging from six and under (Category F) to 16 to 18 (Category A), with Category G reserved for artists of all ages with special educational needs. Full details of all the winners and a gallery of this years and some previous artists’ works are available at the Texaco Children’s Art website. 

The competition is the longest running arts sponsorship in Ireland, with a continuous history back to 1955. Many famous Irish artists and public figures are among the long list of previous winners and highly commended.

In 2020, the overall winner of the competition was Casey Etherton, now 18 years old, a student at Coláiste na Sceilge in Caherciveen, Co. Kerry. His oil painting, ‘Kevin in the Pink’, earns him €1,500 and high praise from the Final Adjudicator and Chairman of the judging panel, Professor Declan McGonagle. He said the winning entry as “an exceedingly lifelike and sensitive painting in which the subject is caught in a thoughtful moment”.

Unlike many of young artists, this was Casey’s first entry to the Competition. “My teacher really pushed me to put in something. I was working on a painting project of different people around my town.

“I knew about the Children’s Art Competition from First Year. I never really gave entering a thought as there always such great submissions and winners that I never thought I’d be at that level. I still don’t think I am, to be honest. I have a feeling that I stole it as there are such great artists who entered this year. But then it is the judges’ opinion over mine.”

Casey lives in Caherdaniel, a small village, down the road from Kevin, the subject of his painting. “I saw him at a party at my grandparents and seeing him under a really bright light and seeing the contours on his face, I thought it was really interesting and I really wanted to paint him. He was very happy to help out and he and his wife Mary were delighted with the painting.”

Casey is drawn to artists such as Francis Bacon. “I did use a lot of red in that painting. At that time I was very interested in the way he worked, how he looked at an anatomy and how exaggerated he made some things seem. I suppose subconsciously, the influences were there.”

Looking forward, Casey is putting together a portfolio for art college, where he hopes to study animation. He has prepared all his pieces for his application to Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design + Technology.

The deadline for the next Children’s Art Competition is 24 March 2021 and a TV advertising campaign will roll out in the New Year to look for Irish artists of the future.  

James Twohig, Director of Valero Ireland, thanked parents and the many teachers from schools throughout Ireland who, he said, “have continued to give encouragement and support to the many thousands of young artists who have entered the Competition over the course of its 66-year history.”