{"id":243684,"date":"2026-01-21T03:31:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T03:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/243684\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T03:31:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T03:31:12","slug":"curraghboy-artist-excited-for-2026-whats-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/243684\/","title":{"rendered":"Curraghboy artist excited for 2026 – What’s on"},"content":{"rendered":"

A South Roscommon artist is looking forward to the next 12 months and hopes to hold an exhibition of her work.<\/p>\n

Curraghboy native and award winning artist, Avril Egan told the Herald she was delighted to recently receive the \u2018New Protagonist of Contemporary Art\u2019 award at a ceremony in France for her painting \u2018Where Strangers Become Friends\u2019. This award recognises and celebrates authentic and diverse talents from across the globe, across painting, sculpture, photography, and digital art.<\/p>\n

The painting features a vibrant and eclectic pub scene, something very familiar to many Irish people and reflects Avril\u2019s own experience in the hospitality industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout two years ago I received the Da Vinci Award in Milan for my painting \u2018The Falling and Calling of Our Lady\u2019. It was a painting that I had in the Luan Gallery in Athlone. It was spotted by Italian art critics Salvatore Russo and Francesco Russo,\u201d she said. \u201cMore recently I did this pub scene, \u2018Where Strangers Become Friends\u2019, and it has every character you could imagine you could run into on the other side of the bar. I worked in hospitality for a good number of years when I was younger. After a chaotic day, it is nice to go somewhere where if they don\u2019t know your name, they soon will. They\u2019d nearly know your herd number by the end,\u201d she said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

\"\u2018Where\u2018Where Strangers Become Friends\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Russos saw the painting and they nominated me for the \u2018New Protagonist of Contemporary Art\u2019 award in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. This is a very historic town from an art point of view and famous artist Marc Chagall is buried there.\u201d The last months were very busy for Avril as she bought a house and had a number of commissions to do, so the win was a huge boost, \u201cit has given me the motivation to put the head down and get painting for myself again\u201d.<\/p>\n

Last year, Avril was also commissioned to do a painting for Teleflex\u2019s annual Corporate Family & Friends Day, which she was delighted to do for the Athlone based medical manufacturing company.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am working with Teleflex as an account manager-customer service representative and it was great to marry the two jobs,\u201d she said. \u201cIn October I held a pumpkin painting workshop as part of the sports and social night, they always try to find opportunities to show my creative side which I really appreciate.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Avril, who studied the performing arts in college, also works with the Dean Crowe Theatre. \u201cI am a jack of all trades,\u201d she said with a laugh. \u201cI did the set for Cry Baby the musical last February, and they invited me back to do the pantomime. It is something I really enjoy.\u201d She also hopes to hold a solo exhibition of her work in the coming months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Luan Gallery is great for supporting artists in the region, as are The Village at Burgess in Athlone,\u201d she said. \u201cI hope to have an exhibition of some kind in Athlone at some time during 2026.\u201d Avril is happy to accept commissions for portraits and landscapes artworks and can be contacted on her Facebook page, Egan Art or on eganart1997@gmail.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A South Roscommon artist is looking forward to the next 12 months and hopes to hold an exhibition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-243684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}