Exhibition of Award Winning Art from 54th Texaco Children's Art Competition

The exhibition will include Work from Rebecca Murphy, Kerry Native and Art Competition Winner, pictured above.

With past winners including everyone from TD's to world renowned artists, the Texaco Children's Art Competition has played an influential role in the artistic lives of children in Ireland for fifty four years. To celebrate this achievement, Samhlaiocht, Kerry's premiere Arts Organisation is exhibiting a selection of the winning entries from the latest Competition.

"The Texaco Children's Art Competition has been encouraging artistic talent in Children for over half a century," said Jason O' Mahony, Artistic Director of Samhlaiocht. "When you look at a list of past winners and the effect that winning the Competition had on their lives it's absolutely unbelievable! The spirit of the Competition is very much in keeping with the ethos of Samhlaiocht, to encourage Children to enjoy, create and participate in the Arts."

Ruairi Quinn TD, a prize winner of the Texaco Children's Art Competition at the time of the Suez Crisis, said, "I won my first Texaco prize at the age of 10. Then I was doing it (art) without realising I was good at it. By the time I was a teenager it was central to my life. I painted constantly, right through until I was about 27 or 28."

"I was fortunate enough to get encouragement from that first award. I won a couple of other awards at different age categories," he added. "It had a profound effect on my life and what I subsequently did."

The Competition is having an equally influential effect on current day winners. Rebecca Murphy, who hails from Killarney is 8 year old and was a First Prize Winner in this year's Competition with a wonderful painting called, The Hungry Toucan.

"I feel like the luckiest girl in Ireland," laughed Rebecca, "it's a great feeling to win." When asked about her inspiration for the painting, she says, "I love animals and birds. I got a book about the rainforest and decided to paint a toucan and now budgies and toucans are my favorite birds or animals."

"We were delighted and very proud of Rebecca that she won," said Maire Murphy, Rebecca's mom, a Killarney native. "We were humbled by the standard of work that we saw at the Awards Ceremony. Winning the prize has had an immensely positive effect on her and given her fantastic confidence."

Maire, who is a teacher in Killarney and husband Sean, who owns Lord Kenmare's Restaurant, felt becoming part of a winning group of talented Children was central to Rebecca's growing confidence. Maire was also quick to heap praise on Texaco for their "amazing generosity" while saying that all the prize winners were "treated like royalty."

With over thirty thousand entries a year, the Competition is a breeding ground for young artists, and many past winners have gone on to have successful careers in Art. When asked to describe the impact the Competition had on her career, renowned artist and former winner, Bernadette Madden, said, it was "a wonderful childhood experience. A magical memory. Children's Art sowed a seed which encouraged me to develop my artistic talents at a very young age."

Artist Marie Connole, another past winner, is equally full of praise for the Competition saying, "I entered the Competition often during my teenage years and it was very influential in my decision to continue with art as a career."

Their memory of the Competition and of the influence which it had in helping to develop their careers in art is typical of past winners' feelings. Such warm memories mirror the regard which Kerry's Artistic community has for Samhlaiocht. And given the success of both Samhlaiocht and Texaco in promoting the love of Art in children it would be difficult to bet against Rebecca and this year's other winners having equally fond memories and maybe even equally successful careers in Art!

The exhibition of selected artwork from the 54th Texaco Children's Art Competition opens in the new Samhlaiocht Gallery which is located in the Old Presbytery on Lower Castle Street in the heart of Tralee on Thursday, 12th of June, and runs through to Wednesday, July 2nd. The Gallery is open from 10 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, is free to visit and all are welcome.

For more information on Samhlaiocht please log on to http://www.samhlaiocht.com/
For more information on the Texaco Art Competition please log onto http://www.texacochildrensart.com/

For further information about the Texaco Children's Art Competition, contact Don Hall/Maeve Barry, Hall PR on 01 660 9377 (office), 087-2552699 (mobile) or email pr@hallpr.ie.