The Path to Portrait Artist of the Year - Part 1

We’re looking for Australia’s finest portrait artists.

I showed my phone screen to Amanda, the sponsored post that had spliced its way into my Instagram feed. “They’re doing callouts for a new art show,” I said. “It doesn’t say, but… it’s got to be an Australian version of Portrait Artist of the Year.”

This was a show we were both avid watchers of, a UK series that stripped away the tackiness of reality TV and dedicated itself to the process of painting; a celebration of art and artists that welcomed professionals and newcomers alike.

“Oh wow. Yeah, I bet it is.”

“You should totally do it. This is 100 percent you.”

Amanda paused. “Only if you do it with me.”

And I paused too, and I looked at the post on my phone, and I gave my trademark non-committal response, the one that serves to temper the moment in a way that outwardly lets possibility linger, but really, is my mind making a hasty unspoken retreat:

“Yeah, maybe…”

Outwardly, it was yeah, maybe - inside, it was hell no. I couldn’t go on a TV show. There was no way. Me, I’m just a writer guy who made an Instagram account to house random dabblings of visual art in between doing, you know, being the writer guy. I wasn’t a real artist. There’s no way I’m ready enough, skilled enough, brave enough to subject myself to the pressures of a TV show that demands artists to perform and subjects them and their work to the scrutiny that follows.

But I saw all those qualities in Amanda. Art was her thing, always had been. Amanda has always been the artist - that’s how I knew her when we first met 18 years ago. Between the hundreds of illustrations produced in her professional career and the hundreds more produced for fan zines, friends, and her own interests on weekends, holidays and evenings, my wife is well and truly a capital-A Artist.

Yeah, maybe… And that, at least in that moment, was that.

Until a week later, when an email arrived in my inbox. The sender was Aimee, a producer at EndemolShine Australia. “I’ve had a look at some of your work online,” she said. “I’d love to chat with you about an upcoming TV series. I feel like it could be up your alley.”

Uh-oh…