Nothing deters Nothling from entering Brisbane portrait Prize

When Stephen Nothling’s fabulous painting of his wife didn’t make the cut for last year’s Brisbane Portrait Prize he got angry. Then he decided to get even by having another crack.

When Brisbane artist Stephen Nothling’s fabulous painting of his wife Deirdre didn’t make the cut for last year’s Brisbane Portrait Prize he got angry. Then he decided to get even by having another crack.

This year he has painted his daughter Lily who many will know from ABC TV. She’s a journalist reporting on news from Queensland. Nothling is just one of hundreds of artists vying for more than $80,000 worth of prizes this year with entries to the Brisbane Portrait Prize (BPP) closing on August 15.

Nothling says there’s no guarantee he will make the cut as a finalist this year either but it is worth a shot.

“I was annoyed last year and I wasn’t going to enter again,” Nothling says. “But then Lily came over for dinner and I said ... do you think we should do your portrait?”

Just Lily by Stephen Nothling

He did, inspired by Picasso’s famous 1923 portrait Woman in white.

“I’m not Picasso but I wanted to do a painting like that,” Nothling says. “It didn’t work at first and it took me a couple of weeks. It was tricky.”

Lily Nothling, 24, says she is happy with her dad’s painting of her which is entitled Just Lily.

“I had finished a days work and had been to the gym and wasn’t in the mood to pose,” she says. “But he knew what he was after and I’m happy with it. The final version is a lot different from the first. You get used to seeing yourself when you work in the media but a painting is different.”

Artist Stephen Nothling and daughter Lily pictured at his home in Highgate Hill with the portrait he is entering in the Brisbane Portrait Prize. (Image/Josh Woning)

As well as Lily Nothling there’s also a painting of Lilly Luhrmann, daughter of filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and his wife, designer Catherine Martin. Lilly Luhrmann has been painted by Cairns artist Elizabeth Barden who says she was inspired after reading an article about her in Qweekend magazine in The Courier-Mail.

“Together with the State Government she launched the Study Queensland Luhrmann Appeal to help students stranded by Covid,” Barden says. “Lilly struck me as a warm, caring and empathetic young woman.”

Lilly Luhrmann hasn’t seen the final result but has viewed images of the work in progress and describes it as “beautiful”.

“I’m so honoured and excited,” Luhrmann says.

Elizabeth Barden’s portrait of Lilly Luhrmann which she is entering in this year’s Brisbane Portrait Prize

BPP chair Anna Reynolds says entries, which close at 6pm on August 15, are coming in “thick and fast” although she pointed out that “artists always leave it to the last minute to enter”.

“This year, although the pandemic is still well and truly with us, there is a sense that we have opportunities ahead,” Reynolds says. “We are seeing some works depicting health workers and others just celebrating the intrinsic humanity of our city and the characters within it.”

Last year the main award, the Lord Mayor’s Prize of $50,000 was won by Keith Burt for his portrait of twin brothers Matt and Daniel Tobin who run urban Art projects.

Quandamooka Woman from Minjerribah by Margaret (Meg) McCarthy features Kala Hopkins the great granddaughter of poet and activist Kath Walker aka Oodgeroo Noonuccal

There are eight categories including the Courier-Mail People’s Choice Award for $7,500 won last year by Sunshine Coast artist Jess Le Clerc. This year BPP has teamed up with Birrunga Gallery in the CBD which will host the BPP Indigenous Artists Showcase in November. An Emerging Artists Showcase will be held in conjunction with Metro Arts and West Village at West End.

Finalists will be announced on September 18 and the finalists exhibition will open at the Brisbane Powerhouse on September 29 and will run until October 31.

The winners will be announced on October 6.

brisbaneportraitprize.org