This year’s overall winner of the fifth annual Sightsavers Junior Painter Awards was Naoise Clarke-Carr from Ratoath Junior National School, Co. Meath.
Naoise was awarded the top accolade for her wonderful creation, I Would Love to See a Fun Jungle Birthday Party. Second and third place went to Ashling Crawte (age 12) and Elese Doyle (age 6) respectively, both from Ballyduff National School, Co. Wexford. The overall winning schools received cash prizes of up to €1000 which were generously pledged by The Irish Times
Over 5000 primary school children from around the country entered the competition and were tasked with creating a painting inspired by the theme I Would Love To See.
Some of the most topical and popular sources of inspiration included I Would Love To See The Eye Of The Tiger, I Would Love To See Beautiful Flowers Everywhere, I Would Love To See A Two-Sided Monster, I Would Love To See An Elephant Looking At Me, I Would Love To See Dinosaurs And Volcanoes
Oscar nominated animator Tomm Moore headed the judging panel and said: “Judging this competition has been no easy feat. The artistic quality of the entries was out of this world, so much so that there were times when I had to double check the age of some of the entrants.”
The art competition is devised by Sightsavers to educate children about the challenges faced by millions of blind and visually impaired people in the developing world.
The finalist paintings will be exhibited in Powerscourt Gallery, 1st Floor, Powerscourt Town Centre, South William Street, Dublin 2 from Friday February 28th - March 14th 2014.
