This is a proud mumma moment! I am so proud of my 15-year-old son Lucca whose self-portrait was selected for the annual Young Archie Awards at the Art Gallery of NSW! It was exhibited at the Art Gallery for several months in conjunction with the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes exhibition, and you can view it online too.

Lucca wrote this about his work:

This is the first painting I’ve ever done in watercolour. I decided to work in watercolour as over the summer I got tired of using the same medium. I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and bring back the excitement of doing something new. So as a first piece, I decided to paint myself because in the likely event of messing it up I didn’t want to hurt another person’s feelings.

Only 10 finalists are selected for each of the four age categories to exhibit at the Gallery – and, in 2019, from 2100 entries, 74% were girls. We thank Lucca’s art teacher for nudging us to submit his painting. Ms Du runs art classes for students and adults at her DuFN Academy of Fine Arts on Stirling Hwy in Claremont, Perth. 

We are so proud of Lucca; the whole family travelled to Sydney for the presentation and to share in this amazing achievement at such a young age. (It also gave me the excuse to see the Archibald, which has been on my bucket list for years! So many amazing works. I hope you enjoy my snaps.)

Since then, Lucca has produced quite a few stunning portraits in water colour, so if anyone would like to commission him for a portrait or large wall mural over the summer break send me a message; he would love to do it.

After Sydney Lucca and I had the chance to also visit Brisbane, and visited the Gallery of Modern Art where we saw the incredible Ben Quilty / Margaret Olley exhibition. Stunning works. I didn’t realise that Ben has been a finalist 3 times in the Archibald; each time with a painting of Margaret Olley. All of them so expressive. It seems they had a very special relationship. I love Ben’s thick, expressive application of paint and his intense colour palate.

Scroll down for my snaps at the AGNSW and GoMA.