It’s a measure of the success of the Brisbane Portrait Prize that artists are devastated when they don’t make the finalists list. And it’s a big list this year with 84 works chosen and they will all hang at Brisbane Powerhouse for the prize’s annual exhibition later this month.

For my sins I will be among the faces on the walls as I have been painted for the second time for the prize by my artist mate Jun Chen. He has been a finalist in the Archibald (which one Brisbane artist I know refers to as “a bent chook raffle”) and in the Brisbane Portrait Prize before. I’m rather honored that my portrait has been chosen yet again not for any reasons of vanity (heaven forbid) but because Jun Chen is a friend, a fine artist (he’s in Philip Bacon Galleries’ impressive stable) and I wish him well.

Besides I put a lot of effort into sitting for him. For a start It had to drive all the way to Underwood to pose and for a Northside boy that’s a schlep. After the sitting session we repaired to a local Chinese restaurant for yum cha so there is always an upside to everything.

If Jun Chen hadn’t made the cut, I would feel bad for him and I would probably have felt personally aggrieved too!

Phil Brown by Jun Chen

I got a call the other day from a mate, an artist who has been a finalist before, and he was  lamenting the fact that he didn’t make the finalists cut this year. There are hundreds of entries but each artist takes it very personally if they are not chosen, let me assure you.

He rang me after seeing my portrait in the finalists gallery to tell me his troubles but he was chuffed that he had been at least been chosen for the Salon des Refuses (the best of the rest) which is on at the Royal Queensland Art Society’s gallery at Petrie Terrace from September 29.

The fact that there is so much angst about being chosen or excluded says something about the success of the prize. There’s also a bit of prestige about being chosen as a sitter. And when an artist wins, well, the sitter kind of feels like they have won too.

I’m sure this amuses the prize’s founding director and chair, Anna Reynolds, who is an artist herself and also currently chair of Brisbane Festival.

The existence of the prize is really due to Anna’s vision and tenacity and plaudits to Brisbane City Council and other sponsors for backing it.

Now in its fifth year, the competition’s finalists will be vying across nine categories for a combined total of $90,000 in prize money, including the highly coveted $50,000 Lord Mayor’s Prize.

Anna Reynolds says she is delighted with the variety of finalist works this year.

“The growth we’ve seen in the Brisbane Portrait Prize this year has been phenomenal, in terms of numbers, artistic maturity and variety,” she says. “It’s wonderful to see the growth in the creative community around the Brisbane Portrait Prize and the increasing public engagement.

“The entrants are a mix of professional, emerging and hobbyist artists. There are plenty with national reputations like Joe Furlonger, Fiona Lowry, Tony Albert, Luther Cora, Robert Mercer, Keemon Williams, Dylan Mooney, Darren McDonald and Joachim Froese.

“Many of this year’s works depict families, children, aunties and best friends, with lots of artists also submitting self-portraits and portraits of other artists. And of course, we have the usual smattering of performing artists, local heroes, and famous faces.”

Well know chef Alastair McLeod has been painted by Carla Petrie, there’s a lovely portrait of NRL legend Petero Civoniceva by Lesley Wengembo and other sitters include actor Liam Nunan, Australian cricketer Grace Harris, Dr Dinesh Palipana and others.

Last year’s Lord Mayor’s Prize winner Darren McDonald has done a terrific portrait of local cop and artist Stephen Tiernan. Beatboxer Tom Thum is also featured in a very interesting vanitas style work by John Martin who has sampled Tom’s image via scan and reproduced it as two 3D printed busts to create a still life that bends the genre into a portrait.

Jan Rae, who identifies as a tango dancer as well as an artist, has done a very jaunty portrait of her friend Ray Darwen.

One of my favorites is a photographic entry by Sangeeta Mahajan called The Red Barons. It features a group of eight distinguished professionals who are all members of the Brisbane Club – Derrick Vickers (club president), Ian Walker, Scott Butler, Mike Gould, Mike Robertson, Ian Bloemendall, Anthony Thompson and Kevin Holzapfel. A few more and you would have The Last Supper!

These “Red Barons” are all wind connoisseurs and good friends.

“This portrait attempts to capture their spirit of friendship and affinity,” Sangeeta Mahajan says. “It aims to depict the duality that is evident within the group … the power, grace, prestige and confidence of these high achievers, as well as the palpable camaraderie, humor, sensitivity, trust and sense of belonging.”

There’s sure to be some comments about this work for a number of reasons.

The works over all cover a multitude of styles and this year feature the largest number of First Nations entries and also an increase in the Next Gen entries for artists 18 and under which is great.

There are nine categories and it is up to judge Suzanne Cotter, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in Sydney, to decide the winners for all these categories. She has her work cut out for her.

A previous judge said she would have a getaway car at the ready after announcing the winners. Hopefully it won’t come to that this year.

The winners will be announced on October 3 and you can see the finalists works at Brisbane Powerhouse from September 28. Meanwhile you can browse the finalists gallery online.

brisbaneportraitprize.org

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