The emphasis on portraiture and people in the show included nice examples in the Library Gallery, such as Jessica Daly's painting, a self-portrait made a night. Daly, a recent graduate from NCAD, showed her self-portrait Wrapping, one of a series of night paintings made for her graduation exhibition. It seemed in the painting that her eyes were closed to the viewer rather than asleep. Her arms were cut off from the frame perhaps extended to capture a selfie. Was she in a state of stasis rather than in rest or relaxation? The unforgiving interior light chased across her face, compounding the harshness of our interior lives, almost a metaphor for the year in which it was painted. Lesley Wingfield's captivating portrait, John Hill, examined the subject closely, perhaps observing himself in a mirror or reflecting our gaze. Keith Watts's series Barehand expressed his interests in the coded language of hands, which express the range of our feelings, remorse, gratitude, exhaustion, grief, love, anxiety, empathy, relief, euphoria and so on.

Other examples that struck and were fresh and brave in their visual language were Rachel Coyne's paintings which read like tales or life-stories, staged and quietly dramatic. Her works were based on the theme of women in domestic spaces. Coyne used reference materials from historical figurative paintings, Irish mythology, old family photographs and memories of her childhood to inform her paintings. Beside her in The River Gallery were Rachel Marie Cleary's brilliantly bright and brash pink and purple paintings, a celebration of positive self-image, from an artist who is interested in the power of artmaking. Her medium is acrylic on canvas and occasionally lino and collage poetry prints. My eye was also caught by Catherine Rock, Lorraine Mimnagh, and Mai Ryan's playful, colourful works, and by Peter Ganly's three small drawings which also referred to the devastation of war.

Karen Norton Moynihan's three paintings were magical. They had a fairylike almost supernatural quality, which I found compelling. Her visual language is charming and unique. Norton Moynihan's intention was for the viewer to feel reassurance and curiosity. She described her work as interweaving the dynamism and synergy of flowers and woodlands. She referenced the wonders and adaptability of plants and flowers in her garden and woodlands.

There was one award made to an artist to further their professional development. This was made to Olena Karpenko, who was living in Athlone. She received a studio in Abbey Road, mentorship, and inclusion in a later exhibition at Luan. Karpenko's work is abstract, playing with layers, colour and forms, with over-layers of colour washes, made with acrylic and mixed media on paper. Her interests are in abstraction, and strongly reference her passion for abstract expressionism. The works selected were from a series titled Terra Patera, a reflection on the war in her home country of Ukraine. She described the works as "drawn during the days of war away from home and dedicated to the homeland, our roots, land and homesickness." "At the very core of my paintings are life experiences. Taking something that is intangible onto a canvas with paint solidifies time and encapsulates that experience." These small rich and colourful works were assured and beautifully balanced in composition.

The selection was largely focused on art practices that may not have the potential for regular commercial income. The combined nature of this project suggested that it was opportune to represent practices which might be less known and to bring them into dialogue with those who might be better known locally.

There were over eighty-two applications for the award, and sincere thanks are due to all those who put their work forward for consideration. It was a challenge to select twenty-six. During the selection process, I had the opportunity of getting more familiar with wonderful and talented works from illustrators, jewellers, and other craft makers locally. However, it was only due to the context of the exhibition that they were not shown in this iteration. So it's important for me to emphasise there was some outstanding talent not presented in this particular iteration of the award.

There were several more senior or experienced artists also represented here, each articulating a lifetime of skills, imagination, and their own unique approach to artmaking. I was delighted that their works were included too, and many thanks to them also for being part of this initiative. My sincere thanks also to the team at The Luan, to its Director Carmel Duffy and Arts Officer Miriam Mulrennan for inviting me to select and arrange with works for exhibition.

Sarah Searson