A former teacher at St Michael's Grammar School in Enniskillen is waiting to find out if she has won Australia's richest art award.

Anne-Marie McCaughey, from Omagh, is one of only twenty-five artists short-

listed for the 'Black Swan portrait award' for her portrait of the man who, as she puts it, 'Saved my life by restoring the power of my painting arm'. The prize is worth twenty-five thousand dollars.

Anne has had a well-established local and national name as an artist exhibiting her artwork in competitions (and feis) from an early age.

When she graduated from Art College she not only worked in London as an illustrator for some of the most famous glossy magazines but returned to have many successful exhibitions of her paintings throughout Ireland.

After leaving London she trained as a teacher and her first full-time job was with the boys of St. Michael's school in Chanterhill.

"If there was ever a good place to be sited, both for the beauty of the scenery and the enjoyment of those keen young minds it was Enniskillen," the artist said.

"I enjoyed my time and the wonderful, gorgeous people I met there so much its only truly scary to realise that it's now twenty years ago and all those boys will be grown men now.

"I still remember them so vividly and wonder where they are and what they're doing. It was a fantastic school, with an amazing staff and a great way to begin teaching."

By the late nineties Anne-Marie had established her own gallery in Belfast and was painting full-time and she thought she had achieved her lifetime goal.

That was until she met an Australian man and eventually followed him, and her heart, to Australia.

When Anne-Marie first moved to be in Australia she suffered an unusual combination of repetitive strain injury, exacerbated by a motorcycle accident in which she damaged her neck with the upshot being she suffered debilitating pain which made all activity difficult and painting impossible.

Dr Andrew Dean, the subject of her painting and a specialist pain physician treated the artist over a period of three years, and thanks to his help the artist made a full return to painting in 2007.

Talking about the Black Swan Award, Anne-Marie explained her choice of subject as the competition rules stated that the person chosen must be famous in their field of expertise.
"I was so fed up with artists winning prizes for paintings of politicians and musicians when someone like Andrew spends his life to see that people do not live out their lives, or die, in the horrors of pain. I felt that he should be acknowledged as one of the unsung heroes."

Anne-Marie travels back to Ireland about twice a year to see family, friends and the Irish landscape.

She recently staged one of the first art shows in the new Strule Arts Centre in Omagh while the first exhibition of her works in her adopted land was excellently received in July of this year.

Anne-Marie intends to continue exhibiting both in Australia and Ireland.