Westmeath painter wins prestigious competition
A Mullingar painter has won a prestigious art competition.
Padraig McCaul is this year's winner of the St Patrick's Mental Health Services' Favourite Painting Competition.
Favourite Painting is an annual exhibition and competition organised by the art committee at St. Patrick’s Mental Health Services (SPMHS) in Dublin. Like previous years, this year's event featured artworks submitted by a number of well-known Irish art galleries.
Service users, staff, and visitors are invited to view the exhibition in the Arts Space of St. Patrick’s University Hospital (SPUH) or online, and to vote for their preferred artwork.
Padraig McCaul's oil on canvas painting, Where Dreams are Made, was submitted to the competition by The Doorway Gallery. He was announced as the winner of Favourite Painting at a ceremony held in the Arts Space of SPUH, having topped both the online and in-person polls.
His painting will now be installed on the SPMHS campus as part of its permanent art collection.
Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, Padraig, who has studios in Mullingar and on Achill Island, said he is thrilled to have won the competition.
"I have been painting full-time for close on 20 years, and I don't win too many competitions. This one is a particularly nice one to win because of the public vote.
"I know a lot of the other artists in the competition, and some of them are very well known. It's very nice to be in among such names and to be chosen as the winner."
Most of Padraig's paintings are of the Achill landscape, where he and his family lived for over a decade before moving to Mullingar around three years ago.
He says that there is something about the "huge skies" and "sense of openness" on the west coast that appeals to him and many others.
"People connect very emotionally [to the west coast], sometimes without even realising it. It has always been used as a way of describing the real Ireland."
Padraig will be exhibiting his work at the Art Source event in the RDS on 15-17 November. He will also be holding a solo exhibition in the Mullingar Park Hotel on 6 and 7 December.