Where There’s A Willis, There’s A Spray Of Colour

Ruby with mum Catriona and Enso’s Tim MON9JUNE25

t was pretty obvious very early on that six-year-old Ruby Willis possessed an incredible artistic drive.

Just how hard that drive was became evident when the budding artist was just two years of age, creating an abstract piece her parents quickly dubbed Fast & Furious.

For obvious reasons, given that Ruby’s whisper-to-a-scream technique caused quite a few paintbrushes to snap, crackle and pop into the bin.

“Her granddad Bobby has recently discovered that he has a real talent for painting,” says Ruby’s mum, Catriona, when we meet up this afternoon, “so maybe her passion and talent is in her genes…”

It’s certainly there on the canvas, for all to see, Ruby’s Magic At South Beach winning this year’s Splash Of Colour competition by a culchie mile or two.

There were many wonderful entries to our annual kids art competition for 2025, and special mentions must go to Dylan Scally, Naoise Morris, Eliza, India Roberts and Josie Haughey. All received many, many votes.

Paradise Found by Rian 7yrs

And we’re still trying to get our heads around how St Patrick’s National School student Rian created Paradise Found at just 7 years of age.

Congrats to Ruby, and to all the magnificent entries this year – you can check each and every one of them right here – and a big, big thanks, as always, to competition sponsors Gordon and Deirdre O’Neill at Goldfish, plus the very mighty Tim at the award-winning Enso for offering up the rather wonderful, rather yummy prize of a slap-up pizza party for our newly-crowned Splash Of Colour champ.

“I’m really happy to win this competition,” says Ruby, who plans to become a fashion designer“and I want to thank everyone who voted for me.

“It’s great to win a pizza party with my cousins too but, best of all, I’m going to be on people’s phones…!”