Zurich Portrait Prize at the Crawford: This is how we made our portraits
Aidan Crotty and his Zurich Portrait Prize winning portrait, Portrait of a Boy, Morning.
Aidan Crotty is from Kilmacthomas, Co Waterford, and is now based in Sligo. He studied art at the Crawford College of Art and Design in Cork. This portrait of his son Rían was winner of the Zurich Portrait Prize, 2020.
“My son Rían was eight at the time I did this. He was quite happy to sit but it was hard to hold him for that long — I had to utilise a photograph as well. It was a great moment for him when it won as well, he was delighted.
“I wasn’t actually going to paint a portrait — I was working towards an exhibition, making good headway. I work outside, from observation mostly and I couldn’t get outside my 5k to finish off the paintings. It felt so strange, the whole lockdown. We live in a rural area anyway, and it felt even more remote in a way. Everything just stopped, it was silent and you could hear the birds singing. Every morning I would get up with the kids, go down, make breakfast and start thinking in the kitchen.
“We live in an old workhouse and this room was originally the matron’s quarters. My wife grew up here. That particular space had been used as a hayshed for a very long time, then we renovated it. It is a beautiful space. It has a high ceiling and has north and south light spilling into the space.
“Painting it was quite a nice thing to do. It happened over three months. I would spend an hour or so a day in the mornings, getting that nice light. I really enjoyed trying to paint and recreate the surfaces — the wall, the windows, the reflections in the windows, that ambience. In the kitchen, I could take my time and look at how the light changes during the day.
“It was a great honour to just get into the exhibition. There are so many other worthy artists, I am still pinching myself that it has happened.”
Rachel Ballagh is from Dublin and lives in Ballycotton, Co Cork. She studied at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. Her self-portrait was shortlisted for the Zurich Portrait Prize.
“I thought of the title first. I was thinking how do you visually express anxiety? You could do a clichéd kind of shocked face or something, then I thought of the title High Anxiety and I liked that, because you had the connection with the Mel Brooks film, you are adding a bit of popular culture and it is kind of comedic as well.
"It represents the anxiety which I was really feeling in the first three months of the pandemic, that helplessness and hopelessness. The fact that I was in Cork, my family was in Dublin, not being able to be with them, I found that really difficult.
“My practice had been drawing and lens-based until 2015, then I had a major health incident, I was in CUH and nearly died. After that, there was a certain clarity in my way of seeing and thinking. Because physically I wasn’t able do do anything large, I started to do painting and smallish canvasses because I have lots of issues standing up straight up with my back because of my illness.
“It took about three months of constant living with it, working with it. I remember one day I brought it out into the garden, cleaned off all the paint, sanded it down and started again. I was very unhappy with a couple of beginnings. It was a process, I didn’t really have it worked out. As I was painting it, I would settle for, ‘oh that’s okay, we’ll leave that bit for today', or else take it off.
“If I had that painting back now, in the studio, I would probably look at it and go, ‘I’d better do a little bit to that there’. I don’t know if they are ever finished, in an artist’s eye, anyway.”
Eva McParland, 14, is from Malahide, Co Dublin. Her portrait of her sister Ellen was overall winner of the Zurich Young Portrait Prize.
“During the lockdown, I didn’t have many options so I chose my sister Ellen as my subject. She was ten when I did the picture. She did a couple of sittings so I could get some sketches. I took a photo and I mainly worked off that.
“I chose to draw a child in a mask because it represented how children were being left out of the picture when it came to the impact of the coronavirus. I have two younger sisters so it was quite obvious to me how the pandemic and the lockdown was affecting the mental health of children and their development. I wanted to put it out there so people would know that through the picture.
“I did it in about four days, it was quite near the deadline for entry — I definitely spent more than 20 hours on it. I used colouring pencils and that takes a lot longer, you have to do a lot of layers. I love colouring pencils, I was just discovering them. I love how they feel and how they work. They are not easy to work with but once you get the hang of it, you can create so many different effects. You can do realism and incredible detail. That helped in creating that image, making it a bit more accessible.
“I was definitely in shock when I won, it is really exciting. The other portraits and entries were amazing. I didn’t believe it at first, it was a bit surreal. I think the judges liked my piece because it was relevant and accessible. The realism style is more accessible to everyone, it is not abstract and there is not a lot of interpretation you have to do, the message is fairly clear.
“I’m in junior cert year now. Nearer exams, it is harder to fit my art in but whenever I get a chance, I try to do some quick sketching. Sports are important as well, so I would never skip GAA practice.”
