From the radio to canvas: Hills artist paints Steve Price

Each night as Christopher Malouf did his rowing training or picked up a paintbrush, he tuned into broadcaster Steve Price on the radio. So who better to pick as a subject for his latest artwork than the man himself?

Christopher Malouf's portrait of Steve Price.

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Each night as Christopher Malouf did his rowing training, he tuned into broadcaster Steve Price on the radio.

He never saw Price’s face but his voice was always there, guiding Malouf through his exercises and training.

When Malouf picked up a paintbrush late at night, it was Price’s voice on the radio once again that kept the artist company.

He liked Price’s “unusual approach to how he views things”.

Christopher and Steve Price with the finished work.

Christopher Malouf spent 194 hours working on the portrait.

So when it came to choosing a subject for his Archibald submission, Malouf’s attention turned to the radio.

He said he thought creating the portrait would be “interesting way to get to know someone who I’d been involved in from a distance”.

The Baulkham Hills architect fired off an email to the radio show and Price responded almost immediately agreeing to do the portrait.

“It took me completely by surprise,” Malouf said.

Price had never had a portrait done before and said he was “quite honoured that someone would ask me to sit and pose for a painting like this”.

“I decided about three years ago when I agreed to spend nearly seven weeks in the jungle doing weird things, eating weird food (on reality television show I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here) that when you get an opportunity, someone asks you to do something which is completely out of left field and out of your comfort zone, you should definitely say yes because you’re never going to get another opportunity to do it,” he said.

Malouf will enter the portrait in the Archibald in April, in what will be his fourth submission to the prestigious art prize.

He chose to depict Price, who many people hear on the radio but do not see, looking out “as if he’s contemplating something or like he’s in thought”.

“That’s how I imagined him … he was never there looking at me in person,” Malouf said.

Price said it was “rather odd looking at yourself in a bigger than life size” but said Malouf had “captured incredibly well my expression”.

“I think it actually really cleverly captures the fact that I’m constantly thinking about stuff,” he said.

Steve said the finished portrait was “brilliant”.

“If I had to describe it, it would be a person who is thinking constantly.”

Malouf spent 194 hours on the portrait over a period of three months, including two 30 minute meetings with Price.

Malouf said he was “nervous as anything” going into those first meetings with Price, where his mission was to learn everything he could about the journalist to be able to accurately capture him in the portrait.

“I do it as if I’m meeting someone for a cup of coffee and having a conversation,” he said.

Malouf said showing the subject their finished portrait was “always nerve wracking”.

“In this case it was even worse because he’s on the night-time radio — because when I’m up at night painting, I’m listening to him,” he said.

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Malouf had nothing to worry about though — Price called the finished portrait “brilliant”.

“It’s not tried to be anything that I’m not, it’s tried to be an honest portrait of somebody,” he said.

“Rather hard to capture given I wear glasses and I’ve got a receding hairline, grey hair — I’m not an oil painting, but this is an oil painting so it’s very exciting.”