Cavan artist Thomas Higgins showcases at RHA Exhibition

Cavan Artist Thomas Higgins who hails from Drumalee Cross will proudly showcase his piece ‘Two Boats of Crover’ at the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) in conjunction with the Collective Artists (CA) Exhibition, which officially opened on Thursday, March 13.

Now in its second year, the exhibition welcomes 10 new artists and expands the group’s collective to 27 talented members who identify as having an intellectual disability or are from the neurodiverse community.

For Thomas, who has already proudly exhibited his art at Cavan Library, his involvement with CA has given him “a voice”.

“I've been with Connecting Artists since 2023 and it is an organisation where artists with mental and physical disabilities come together collectively,” he told the Celt this week.

Connecting Artists was created by Mariam Boland and gives the artists involved “a voice, something they might not otherwise have. We were asked to take pictures of five pieces of our work and Connecting Artists then selected 10 artists from around the country to exhibit one piece. So that’s how my ‘Two Boats of Crover’ came to be part of all that.”

Thomas’ involvement has also helped him produce some of this best work to date.

‘Two Boats of Crover’ emerged after he took a photo while attending a wedding at Crover House Hotel.

“I went down to take a photo of the lake because I thought it would make a nice painting and when I saw the boats there, I decided that would make a better painting, and so here we are,” he said before pointing to his own authentic “voice” that shines through his artwork.

As he says himself: “I’ve always been interested in art and when I reached my late teens, early 20s I really started to shine”.

Thomas, meanwhile, has a great grá for the French Impressionism of the 19th Century.

“I’m greatly influenced by it, especially Claude Monet,” he added before pointing to a couple of “dreams” he hopes will come to fruition.

“I hope to go on a holiday with my mam and sister to Giverny in France where Claude Monet’s house is. That would just be super and maybe take a boat ride down the River Seine, take snapshots and capture some of the areas that the French Impressionists painted.

“Another dream of mine is to have one of my paintings in the National Gallery of Ireland where it could remain forever. That would mean so much because artists with a disability would see that and say ‘anything is possible for us’.”

Thomas also took the opportunity to thank his sister Lavina whose support enabled him to become involved in the RHA exhibition in the first instance.