Finalists for February 2010
The following entrants have been announced as finalists for the month of February.
Primary Students:
Mia Farrell aged 6 from Burren in Co. Clare.
Click to view Mia's entry »
5th & 6th Class Scoil Cholmcille
Click to view Scoil Cholmcille's entry »
2nd Class St Joseph's Convent of Mercy
Click to view St Joseph's entry »
Class 6A St Mary's Boys School
Click to view St Mary's entry »
St. Clare's National School
Click to view St. Clare's entry »
Secondary Students:
Claire McKenna, Marie McFadden, and Rachel O’ Keefe all aged 14 from Kells in Co. Meath with a joint entry.
Click to view their entry »
Josh Joyce from Skerries in Co. Dublin.
Click to view Josh’s entry »
Jordan O’Brien from Croom in Co. Limerick.
Click to view Jordan’s entry »
Liam Swaine from Navan in Co. Meath.
Click to view Liam’s entry »
Firhouse Community College 5th Years .
Click here to view the Firhouse Community College entry »
Third Level and Adult Category:
Jane Sullivan who divides her time between France, and Bishopstown in Co. Cork, Jean Kenny from Gorey in Co. Wexford, Sinead Larkin from Clonmel in Co. Tipperary, Mike O’Neill from Enfield in Co. Meath, and Sean O’Brogain from Leifear, in Co. Donegal.
Click to view Sinead’s entry »
Here's what some participants had to say about their entries.
“Recently when I went to Mia’s parent teacher meeting I was told that she has a real flair for art, and is certainly something she really enjoys, we sat down together to research images from The Book of Kells, and then she sat down for two hours and worked on her drawing with pastels, and created a very colourful work, complete with lions running around the page in the border!”
Ellie Farrell, mother of Ellie aged 6
“I spent about a month in total on my entry, I decided to dye a bed-cloth using tea as I wanted to create a canvas that looked like vellum that the Book of Kells was designed on, I also wanted it to really stand out, and big and bold, so the large size of the bed-sheet was perfect! The image I used was one that I found when I researched the Book of Kells online, and I gave it a contemporary twist by adding an mp3 player and glasses to the angels in the border!”
Liam Swaine
“We heard about the competition in the school and we decided to do something together. The overall concept of the piece is the head of a monk which we fashioned with cloth, mesh, and plaster paris, and then we covered this with examples of the typography and scripture included in The Book of Kells. The whole thing took about a week to complete, but we were all really pleased with the result as the three of us really enjoy art as a subject”
Rachel O’Keefe
“My son pointed out the competition details to me from a jar of Boyne Valley Honey that was on the breakfast table. My image is taken from a larger study I was working on with some adjustments to make it more relevant to the brief of the competition. It is basically a photo shop image made up made up of individual photographs taken in various locations around the country. It is suggestive to me of the sort of environmental influence that a contemporary illuminator might find from patterns of modern buildings, or a traffic choked intersection in the post Celtic Tiger era”
Mike O’Neill
“I have always had an interest in history and archaeology, and in particular I have always admired the beauty of The Book of Kells, and was really excited to take part in a competition that seemed to encapsulate all my varied in interests, as I am also quite passionate about art. I dyed some paper with tea so it would look like vellum, which is the material that the manuscript is written and designed upon, I then thought to myself if I were a monk of the 9th century one of my primary artistic resources would be the surrounding trees and flowers, so I included as many examples of dried leaves as I could in my painting. At some stage I would love to pursue my interest in art with further studies.”
Sinead Larkin
All these finalists will go forward to the final, to be held in April 2010, and are in with a chance to win a Fine Art Facsimile copy of the Book of Kells worth €20,000.
Read related press releases:
February Primary School finalist Mia Farrell » (400k MS Word Doc)
February Secondary School finalist Kell’s Second Years » (400k MS Word Doc)
February Secondary School finalist Liam Swaine » (400k MS Word Doc)
February Secondary School finalist Josh Joyce » (400k MS Word Doc)
February Secondary School finalist Jordan O’Brien » (400k MS Word Doc)
February Adult finalist Sinead Larkin » (400k MS Word Doc)
February Adult finalist Sean O’Brogain » (400k MS Word Doc)
February Adult finalist Mike O’Neill » (400k MS Word Doc)
February Adult finalist Jean Kenny » (400k MS Word Doc)
February Adult finalist Jane Sullivan » (400k MS Word Doc)
View other monthly finalists ...