It has been quite a year for the young Mayo artist Hetty Lawlor. The 17-year-old was a finalist in the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year competition, which was broadcast earlier this year on British television, and this week she was crowned overall winner at the 64th Texaco Children’s Art competition, emulating the achievement of her father, who took home the top prize in 1984.
Her winning entry, a portrait of a young neighbour called Grainne, which she completed in acrylic and colour pencil, was described by competition adjudicators as “a captivating portrait, beautifully composed, perfectly executed and lifelike in its use of colour, tone and texture.”
She comes from an artistic family: her father Jimmy is an artist, her mother Phyl designs carpets and rugs and her sister Anna is studying animation in the Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology.
She’s getting ready for the Leaving Cert and hopes to study Fine Art in Dún Laoghaire starting next September. The €1,500 top prize will, she said, take the sting off the first-year costs.
She told The Irish Times she has been painting "for as long as I can remember but in a serious way since I was about 10".
Inspiration
She did not miss a beat when asked who her inspiration was. “I hate to be cringey but I have to say my dad. He won this competition when he was 16 and he is still an artist today and he is really happy with what he does, and I think that’s incredibly important.”
Describing Hetty as “an exceptional talent”, the chairman of the judging panel Prof Declan McGonagle said she was “the latest in a generation of young prizewinners whose work is testament to depth of artistic ability existing in Ireland today and an illustration of the very high standard of entries being submitted”.
She wasn’t the only second-generation winner at the competition this year. Remy Long is just seven years old and already he has gone one better than his dad Pierre.
The older Long won distinctions twice in the 1980s but never managed to win the top prize – unlike Remy, who finished in the number one position in the 7 to 8-year-olds category for his portrait of a lionfish.
Overawed
Remy was slightly overawed by all the attention his work of art was getting and would only say that he was inspired to draw the lionfish after a trip to the French town of La Rochelle a couple of years ago.
When asked what he plans to do with his €200 prize money, he said he didn’t know yet, though his older brothers figured he should spend it on a downpayment on a trip for the family to Legoland.
Yuxuan Chen from Ballyroan, Dublin 16 won in the 12 to 13-year-old category for a self-portrait. Last year she was awarded a distinction so she was delighted to go one better. When asked what she was inspired by she said simply, “colours, I just love all the colours.”
