Young artist is a Tipp for the future

TIPP is tops for art — and that’s official, at least when it comes to our youngest, emerging artists.

Keith Blake, an 18-year-old student at Presentation Secondary School, Ballingarry in Thurles has won first prize in this year’s 57th Texaco Children’s Art Competition for his self-portrait entitled A Warm Place. This is the second occasion in recent times that the first prize has gone to Tipperary — Lucy Carragher from Birdhill having been the overall winner in 2008.

Keith fought off competition from more than 30,000 students from north and south. He will receive a cheque for €2,000 at the prize-giving ceremony in Dublin in May. He will also have his winning painting displayed in an international exhibition hosted by Japan’s International Federation for Arts and Culture in the prestigious Ueno Royal Museum in Tokyo later this year.