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Monaghan student,18-year old Frances Treanor is in Japan attending an exhibition in Tokyo at which her prize-winning entry in this year's 61st Texaco Children's Art Competition is on display.
Travelling at the invitation of Japan's International Foundation for Arts and Culture, Frances attended the opening of the exhibition, which takes place from June 24th to July 5th at Japan’s largest art museum, the prestigious National Art Center in Tokyo.
Now studying art alongside her twin sister, Maeve, at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, Frances recently won the EUR1,500 first prize in this year’s 61st Texaco Children’s Art Competition for her self-portrait executed in the most unusual of mediums – black ballpoint pen.
So life-like and finely executed is her work, one can see almost every strand of her hair and every reflection in her eyes. Completed by her in just two weeks, her work was said by Professor Declan McGonagle, Chairman of the judging panel to have been executed “with the skill and delicacy of a master”.
Frances is one of seven children born to Anne, a languages teacher, and her farming husband Sean, whose home is at Drumdart, near Emyvale. No stranger to the Texaco Children’s Art Competition, Frances featured amongst the prizewinners in 2012, when she won a second place award in her age category, and again in 2013. Her 2012 work entitled ‘Lighting Up The Imagination’ also featured at the Tokyo exhibition that year alongside a number of other Texaco Children’s Art winning paintings.
Described as a showcase for the world's best young artistic talent, the purpose of the International Foundation for Arts and Culture event is to provide an international platform for young people to engage in their artistic exploration of the world and to nurture a broader understanding of the experiences and events that impact on the younger generation across different cultures.
Annually, some 10,000 students from countries as diverse as Japan, Australia, Egypt, Cambodia and China submit works to the festival.
Frances’ work will be exhibited alongside some 400 other art works by students from Japan and elsewhere including a number of other winning paintings from the Texaco competition.