It was so great to be selected for this years Archibald prize! The support and love that I felt from all my friends family, and fellow artists was really an amazing thing. After trying 8 previous times, with one entry making it to the Salon Des Rufuses in 2011 it really was 9 nine times lucky!
I painted the artist Tim Maguire, and it was a great experience to go and draw, photograph, and hang out with an artist that I have respected for so long, and just have a look at their process, studio, and how they go about things.
As I found out Tim and I go about things in completly opposite ways. I am quite inituitive in how I paint, and just go with what feels right, where as Tim begins with specific colour layering, before the splattering.
I didn't want to give to much energy to this prize, and fuss around for too long on this painting, because there is nothing more devestating than spending weeks on a painting....especially if it looks terrible, submitting it for a prize, and then being rejected, so I kept it fast and loose. This painting was done in 4 hrs, and I enjoyed every minute!
It seemed freeing my mind of any pressures, worked best, and the paintings organic nature, lack of a projector, like so many other's in there, and concentration on shabam colours really make it stand out!
Getting into a prize like this really takes your career onto another level, as the beautiful lady from the AGNSW said it's not that you have made it, it's like you are on the rim of the cup, and I'd loved that description.
While I was lucky to be there, there were at least a dozen artists whose work that I follow on instagram that I would have liked to have seen there too...we are so lucky to have that platform now, and the chance to connect with magazines and bloggers that being spoken about in either glowing or demeaning terms by an art critic isn't the be all and end all these days.
This photo above is me pictured at the AGNSW on the Archibald night with my painting of Tim Maguire entitled THE REAL THING.
As artists we have to enter these prizes that pit our work against each other, I titled my painting the real thing, because the only thing that's real, it's enjoying yourself, and loving what you do.
