'I'll marry Ellen": Portrait of Stuart Skelton.

So I have taken my latest portrait into the Archibald Prize competition. It is a portrait of the Australian tenor Stuart Skelton.

"I'll marry Ellen": portrait of Stuart Skelton.

 I saw Stuart an unforgettable Peter Grimes (that's where the words on the painting come from)  in London at the Coliseum. Stuart is a big fellow and had no difficulty hoisting the young fisherman's apprentice onto his shoulders when the script required.  I heard later that the tenor the following week did not find it so easy. Both portrait and the studies I made in preparation are on www.artsmitten.com

Archibald Entry

The Archibald Portrait competition held at the Art Gallery of NSW always features prominently in the media and is the cause of much discussion (and often controversy) in both art and non-art circles. I took my entry in on Tuesday. There were lots of trucks, vans and cars delivering paintings while I was there. It is always interesting to catch a glimpse of paintings submitted for the three big prizes given at this time of year: Archibald (Portrait), Sulman (Genre) and Wynne (Landscape.

The Soloist

Mine was a painting of Richard Tognetti, painted from sketches I did at the Maribor Music Festival last year.