She is English but her painting celebrating the fall of the Portuguese monarchy has been impressing all and sundry.
15-year-old Abigail O’Connor, who studies at Lagoa’s Jacinto Correia school, told us how she embarked on the painting to “cheer up” her history teacher.
“No one ever brought her nice things, so I thought I’d work on this for her,” she explained.
Pictured here, the intricate work shows a group of men celebrating the fall of the constitutional monarchy and the establishment of the Portuguese Republic on October 5, 1910.
“Not only did my teacher love it, I’ve heard people have wanted to buy it,” she quipped. “It was something I had never attempted, but it came out okay.”
Drawing has been one of the youngster’s passions since she was seven – just around the time she moved with her family from Torquay, England, to the Algarve.
Unlike many foreign youngsters, Abigail was put into a Portuguese school to study in a language she didn’t know.
“Now I speak it quite well, but I had to get used to it quick,” she told us, adding that her plans are to embark on “interior or graphic design” or possibly “animation”.
For now, however, she is focused on completing the school year and enjoying this welcome praise for her painting.
