Artist Jeremy Eden has won the Archibald Prize People’s Choice Award with a portrait of actor Samuel Johnson.
Key points:
The portrait depicts Johnson holding an image of the artist’s late mother
Eden says it took around 300 hours to complete the portrait
It’s the second year running the emerging artist has been an Archibald finalist
A record 35,268 gallery-goers voted in the 2022 award, the most since the prize was first offered in 1988.
After receiving the award at the Art Gallery of NSW, Eden said he was ecstatic to have won the popular vote in his second consecutive year as an Archibald finalist.
“It’s been life-changing… I just hope I can grow with it and be one of those people that’s here every year,” he said.
Being a finalist has alone meant more commissions, and he hopes Wednesday’s win will lead to gallery representation.
“I went from being an emerging artist with nothing to back me up, to people somewhat knowing who I am, which is lovely.”
The Sydney-based artist first met Johnson in 2021 while the actor was recovering from a near-fatal car accident.
He was in a neck brace when they first spoke on a video call, and the pair bonded over their shared experience of losing close family members to cancer.
Eden’s mother died from the illness in 2008, while Johnson founded the cancer charity Love Your Sister with his sibling Connie before she died in 2017.
The winning portrait depicts Johnson holding a photo of Eden’s mother Annette, after the actor encouraged Eden to include his personal story in the portrait too.
The portrait shows Johnson holding a black-and-white photo of the artist’s mother.(AAP: Bianca De Marchi)
The painter flew to Melbourne for a live sitting with Johnson, then worked six hours a day for 10 weeks to finish the portrait.
“The people have spoken and they loved Jeremy the most,” Johnson said in a statement.
“He is an extraordinary storyteller, has a huge heart and he deserves this acknowledgment so fully.”
Love your Sister has a substantial public following and has raised more than $15 million for cancer research.
The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes are on show at the gallery until August 28, and the Archibald finalists will tour regional Victoria and NSW until July 2023.
Vincent Worlters remembers the moment his dreams of being a professional musician were initially crushed.
“As a young man, I was being trained to be an opera singer, but life got in the way with the onset of my disability, which was quite profoundly disabling,” Mr Worlters said.
“And basically, it destroyed my opportunities to be a professional singer.”
Despite his diagnosis, Mr Worlters was determined music would remain a big part of his life.
“The only breath I got from my horrible illness was to grab my guitar and sing and then the symptoms would come to a stop.”
Vincent Worlters did not realize his love of acting until he joined a disability theater group.(ABC Mid North Coast: Madeleine Cross)
A new inclusive arts program on the NSW mid-north coast has now given Mr Worlters a chance to live out his dreams on stage.
The Wauchope Regional Art Program, also known as WRAP, is designed to assist artists with disabilities to build their confidence and skills. It connects them with professional artists so they can participate in the mainstream industry.
Mr Worlters joined WRAP’s theater class, along with Steph Smith and Kirsty Georges.
“The acceptance is really quite beautiful,” he said.
“Groups like this give me an opportunity, whereas nothing else will.”
The WRAP theater group rehearsed for weeks with mentor Ian Castle.(ABC Mid North Coast: Madeleine Cross)
The trio is mentored by singer and musician Ian Castle.
“It’s this collaborative effort building on the strengths they have as individuals and myself inspiring them to try other things,” Mr Castle said.
The theater group performed on stage at a mainstream arts festival in the region called ArtWalk in front of a crowd of spectators.
It was a dream come true for the close-knit team.
“When the audience gets behind you, your whole performance totally lifts to a whole new level,” Mr Worlters said.
“You can see it in their faces, or the cheers, and their claps. It’s really uplifting.”
WRAP groups performed at Port Macquarie’s ArtWalk event, which attracts thousands of spectators.(ABC Mid North Coast: Madeleine Cross)
Kirsty Georges said her parents and family were “stoked” about the program and her performance.
“I feel it inside my chest. I feel happy,” she said.
And it is not just stage performers who have thrived in the inclusive program.
Artists celebrate inclusion
Creating visual art has always been a source of joy for Kerri Cains but, due to her intellectual disability, she often found it hard to be taken seriously.
“I’ve always had trouble with reading and writing and maths skills,” Ms Cains said.
“But it’s always been a passion of mine to do art.”
Kerri Cains is over the moon to have her artwork on display at a local gallery.(ABC Mid North Coast: Madeleine Cross)
Ms Cains said she was over the moon to be involved in the Wauchope Regional Art Program and its workshops.
“It’s hard to find places sometimes that are so inclusive,” Ms Cains said.
“In this art class, in particular, we don’t feel like we’re just put on the side … it’s actual artists actually teaching you how to do it and they treat you like they would treat everybody else.”
Graphic designer and mentor Michele Kaye worked with Kerri Cains to develop the WRAP logo.(ABC Mid North Coast: Madeleine Cross)
Thanks to WRAP, Ms Cains’ work has been displayed front and center at Wauchope Art Gallery as part of the ArtWalk event.
“I can show my family and my friends and everybody in town will see my artwork,” she said.
“It’s just good to see that disability and the arts are coming together in such an amazing way.”
Ms Cains was paired with and mentored by graphic designer Michele Kaye.
“It’s beautiful, its humbling, its real, it’s life. It’s what everyone should be seeing day by day,” Ms Kaye said.
Michele Kaye says she loved every moment of mentoring Kerri Cains.(ABC Mid North Coast: Madeleine Cross)
Artists’ skills ‘skyrocket’
WRAP was established by the Wauchope Community Arts Council, through an NDIS Information, Linkages and Capacity Building Grant.
Project coordinator Vicky Mackey said WRAP was started due to a lack of similar services on the Mid North Coast.
“Even though we have a very busy arts community, they weren’t connecting with people with disabilities,” she said.
“Disabled artists were segregated.”
WRAP theater group member Steph Smith performed a solo show on stage.(ABC Mid North Coast: Madeleine Cross)
Ms Mackey said it was fantastic the group had been given its first mainstream platform at ArtWalk.
“It’s the first time that a lot of them have got to perform in public,” she said.
“The growth in their confidence and just the way they hold themselves, the ability to communicate with strangers, it’s skyrocketed.”
WRAP project coordinator Vicky Mackey was inspired by her own daughter’s disability.(ABC Mid North Coast: Madeleine Cross)
Ms Mackey said she was inspired by her own daughter who has a disability.
“I always try to have the best for her, living the best life she can, and that’s what it’s all about — giving these guys an opportunity,” she said.
“In art, it’s not about being perfect or the best. It’s about the passion and the joy that the person can show in their artwork or their dance.
“It doesn’t have to be perfect and that’s great — life’s not perfect.”
The WRAP performances attracted a large crowd at Port Macquarie’s ArtWalk event.(ABC Mid North Coast: Madeleine Cross)
Among the lovelier lyrics in Don McLean’s song about Vincent van Gogh are those that refer to “faces lined in pain” being “soothed beneath the artist’s loving hand.”
Key points:
The Spirit of SA collection showcases people, places and objects with strong ties to SA
The works will be auctioned off to raise $100,000 to support children with cancer
At the forefront is artist Mark Lobert, who volunteered his time to produce 42 works in about 30 weeks
Something of that tender spirit is reflected at Mark Lobert’s Port Adelaide studio, where, for the past few months, an impressive act of artistic altruism has been taking shape.
“Hopefully we’ve done SA proud because we’re very proud of this collection,” Lobert said when describing the project.
Painting is a paintaking business, but these portraits and landscapes are about alleviating pain — specifically, the pain of very sick children.
Collectively, the 42 canvases will comprise the Spirit of SA exhibition, and they depict prominent South Australian faces, places and icons.
The Granite Island horse-drawn tram is popular with tourists at Victor Harbor.(Supplied: Phil Hodgson and Mark Lobert)
From Monday, they will be on display at Adelaide’s Westpac House, and will be auctioned online to raise at least $100,000 for the Childhood Cancer Association (CCA), to support children battling the illness.
Subjects include rock legend Jimmy Barnes, actress Theresa Palmer, the Hills Hoist, Kangaroo Island’s Remarkable Rocks, chef Maggie Beer, and pop singer Guy Sebastian.
There are also the ABC’s Collinswood building, AFLW star Chelsea Randall and former prime minister Julia Gillard.
Born in the UK, former Prime Minister Julia Gillard moved to Adelaide at a young age.(Supplied: Phil Hodgson and Mark Lobert)
“As a female in politics, and in general, she’s an amazing person,” Lobert said of Gillard.
“The painting that has been done by Barnesy is linked in with the Largs Pier Hotel.
Australian rock legend Jimmy Barnes with the Largs Pier Hotel.(Supplied: Phil Hodgson and Mark Lobert)
“That image would have to be one of my favourites.”
The project has evolved collaboratively — fellow artist Phil Hodgson has worked closely with Lobert, and it is testament to their commitment to the cause that both have volunteered their time.
Each has brought different and complementary skills.
Hodgson’s talents include the ability to capture the lineaments of a human face, while Lobert has focused on non-human subjects, as well as color schemes and other touches.
42 paintings in 30 weeks
In person, Lobert can look a little like a canvas himself—his arms are impressively inked, and his paint-stained shirt resembles a palette for mixing colors.
His studio is every bit the artist’s den.
Lobert’s shirt, like the floor of his studio, is suitably stained with paint.(ABC Radio Adelaide: Daniel Keane)
It is brimming with brushes, paint pots, blank canvases, and works in progress, and its floor is so densely covered with splashes of pigment that it resembles an example of Jackson Pollock’s abstract expressionism.
But the paintings themselves suggest other suitably eclectic influences.
A carton of Farmers Union Iced Coffee, a packet of FruChocs and a selection of frog cakes evoke Andy Warhol’s soup cans, while the blues and yellows of an image of Adelaide’s skyline bring to mind van Gogh’s Starry Night.
An Andy Warhol-esque painting of a packet of FruChocs.(Supplied: Phil Hodgson and Mark Lobert)
“I kind of love colour, I’m always trying to chase color — I need to have color all around me,” Lobert said.
Despite that passion, he admits the production of 42 sizeable works in about 30 weeks has been a challenge.
Kangaroo Island’s Remarkable Rocks were among Hodgson and Lobert’s subjects.(Supplied: Phil Hodgson and Mark Lobert)
But when he admitted, “I won’t lie — it’s been very stressful”, he spoke with the smile of someone who knows the finish line is in sight.
“They have taken a lot of time,” he said.
“Originally, we were going to start off with about 14 — then it went to 20, and 25 went to 30, then it bloomed out to 38 and shot out to 42.”
The Hills Hoist clothes line was produced in South Australia.(Supplied: Phil Hodgson and Mark Lobert)
‘The fight of his life’
The driving force behind the project has been media identity and CCA ambassador Mark Soderstrom.
By auctioning the paintings, Soderstrom hopes to raise $100,000.(ABC Radio Adelaide: Daniel Keane)
“I thought, we’ve got to be grateful for where we live, what can we do to raise $70,000 to $100,000?” he said.
“What if we try and showcase the best part of South Australia, and then auction them off for Childhood Cancer?
“They need something like $1.3 million a year to function and provide their services, so if we could put a dent in that, it’d be bloody brilliant.”
Chosen subjects also included Port Lincoln’s tuna industry.(Supplied: Phil Hodgson and Mark Lobert)
Soderstrom admits he is not “arty” himself — but he is impressed by the power of art not only to raise funds but to provide respite.
Through CCA, he struck up a friendship with Lobert.
Their work has put them in contact with some harrowing stories.
Three-time AFLW premiership player and two-time premiership co-captain Chelsea Randall.(Supplied: Phil Hodgson and Mark Lobert)
Soderstrom recalled the case of Jaxon, “an unbelievably brave little boy” who was undergoing palliative care at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
“He was in the fight of his life, and his parents called him Iron Man because he was so strong,” Soderstrom said.
Soderstrom asked Lobert to paint a picture of the superhero for Jaxon, to go over his hospital bed.
“Every time he woke up, with the time he had left, all he could see was Iron Man.”
Easing the burden on children like Jaxon is at the heart of the Spirit of SA.
“Our father passed away with cancer,” Lobert said.
“So whenever I hear of any [fundraiser] that’s to do with cancer, it’s always going to be a ‘yes’.
“I love to be able to give.”
Assistant Leandra McKay and artist Mark Lobert at Lobert’s studio, where he has been working on a painting of CCA mascot Elliot.(ABC Radio Adelaide: Daniel Keane)
