A west-Sligo based artist has spoken about how lockdown created a painting which scooped a prestigious national award. Waterford native Aidan Crotty, who has lived in Easkey for 15 years, was chosen as the winner of the Zurich Portrait Prize in December, with his entry 'Portrait of a Boy' holding off stiff competition to take top spot. Mr Crotty's entry was based on a portrait he painted of his eight-year-old son Rían during the course of three months in early 2020, as the first of the Covid-19 restrictions came into place. "The reason I even started taking the portrait of my son was because even within the first week of the lockdown, me and my wife because she works in the arts sector as well, we were just receiving email after email of cancelled events and cancelled exhibitions and the whole lot just fell through," Mr Crotty explained to The Sligo Champion.