NEWCASTLE STUDENT WINS TOP ART PRIZE

A LOCAL student has won a top prize in this year’s 69th Texaco Children’s Art Competition. In the 14-15 years age category, Alexandra Buzova, who attends Shimna Integrated College in Newcastle, won third prize for her artwork, entitled ‘Babicka’. Fifteen-year-old Alexandra’s work is described by final adjudicator Professor Gary Granville as “a study of cultural mix in a single portrait which makes highly effective use of a single garment in colour across the monochrome image”. A previous winner, Alexandra won a Special Merit Award in the same category of last year’s competition.   The Texaco Children’s Art Competition is popularly regarded as the longestrunning 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 Down and counties throughout Ireland have had their talents recognised and their creativity commended.