Video: The Woman Who Has Never Painted Receives $ 150,000 Best Portrait Award
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
The expression “beginners are lucky”, as it turned out, can be applied not only to gambling, but even to quite serious contests in the art world. So, this year the most prestigious competition for the best portrait in Australia and an award of $ 150,000 was won by Lynn Severy from Melbourne, who has never painted portraits or painted with oils before.
Lynn Savery describes herself as a "self-taught artist." She submitted two of her paintings to the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize competition, one of which was a self-portrait - Lynn portrayed herself sitting on a chair with a bulldog sprawling at her feet - and it was she who won the jury. Both of Lynn's paintings made it to the finalist list of 30 works. All in all, more than 1,300 paintings participated in the competition, so the jury definitely had plenty to choose from.
In the final of the competition, Lynn had quite serious opponents - last year's winner with a portrait of his wife, as well as at least three internationally recognized artists with extensive experience in painting portraits. It's funny that before that, Lynn had sent her work to another, slightly less prestigious competition - the New South Wales' Archibald Prize - and there her work was refused.
Drawing for Lynn was just a hobby, the same as writing - the woman has four children's books and one big novel, all of which at one time received a refusal from the publishing house. “You ask me if I was upset that I was then refused the competition, but I know a lot about refusals - I have more than enough of them,” smiles Lynn.
Explaining their choice, the jury speaks of the emotional fullness of the canvas, scrupulous attention to detail, as well as the artist's ability to create a holistic picture with a clearly traced plot.
The 58-year-old Lynn herself says that she painted most of her life, but more or less seriously began to study art only for the last two years, when, after a severe depression, she went to evening drawing courses. At the same time, the main occupation of a woman, as such, does not exist - in her life, as she herself says, “I have been everywhere”: I developed furniture design, created musical instruments, leather belts for men, defended her doctoral dissertation in politics, worked at the university for several years worked at the UN in an institution for the protection of women's rights …
Lynn admits that she did not pay due attention to drawing, as she was busy with personal problems - for the past two years she has been caring for her sick father (he died in February of this year), as well as her husband, who has cancer. And therefore, when Lynn found out that she had won the competition, it was a huge shock for her, although, of course, she was delighted. “I don’t know what I’ve actually drawn - the part of me that suffers from depression and anxiety, or the one that is optimistic and tries to rely on myself? Others say that I seem confident in the picture."
You can read about the scandalous history of the painting, because of which the artist Pimonenko sued the vodka manufacturer Shustov, in our article dedicated to this incident.
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