Four Donegal students win top prizes at Texaco Children’s Art Competition

Click on the arrows to go through a gallery of images

Four Donegal students were among the top winners at the 70th Texaco Children’s Art Competition.

Weronika Jarowinska of Loreto Secondary School Letterkenny, St Mary's NS, Lifford pupil Charles Gallagher and Kerri Dohery of Abbey VS in Donegal Town were second in their categories while Alice Friel, a pupil at Scoil Mhuire Gan Smál, Letterkenny, won a Special Merit Award.

In the 16-18 year age category, Weronika Jarowinska, a 16-year-old from Loreto Secondary School Letterkenny, won second prize for her work entitled ‘Man to Machine’.

Her artwork is described by final adjudicator, Gary Granville, Professor Emeritus of Education at the National College of Art and Design as: “a juxtaposing of natural organic material with artificial material to great effect, with the printed text providing an interesting narrative behind the organic and metallic material.”

In the 14-15 year age category, Kerri Doherty, aged 15 from Abbey Vocational School, Donegal Town, won second prize for her artwork entitled ‘Granda's Turn!’.

Professor Granville described her work as: “a beautifully realised intergenerational piece in which the little girl paints her grandad’s fingernails.”

In the six years and under age category – the youngest age group in the competition – second prize was won by Charles (Dominic) Gallagher, aged six and a pupil at St. Mary's National School, Lifford, for his artwork entitled ‘Moving Oceans’, in which Professor Granville said: “the artist uses simple, strong and expressive strokes.”

Alice Friel (5), from Scoil Mhuire Gan Smál, Letterkenny, won a Special Merit Award for her artwork entitled ‘Self Portrait with Rainbow + Butterflies’ that Professor Granville said ‘demonstrated high levels of skill and imagination’.

No strangers to the Competition, Kerri won third prize in the 12-13 year age category in 2022 and a Special Merit Award in category B last year, Charles (Dominic) won second prize in the six years and under age category last year and Alice won a Special Merit Award in the same category last year too.

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 Donegal and counties throughout Ireland have had their talents recognised and their creativity commended.