Canberra's only finalist in the Young Archie competition this year was 18-year-old Narrabundah artist Harriet Mitchell. She didn't have to look far for her subject, choosing her younger sister Romy, whom she frequently paints.
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"I work a lot so it's hard to get people to fit time with my time. I know her really well and feel comfortable painting her."
In her artist's statement for Romy, Harriet wrote, "This is Romy, my six-year-old sister. She is always chatting and rarely sits still. I wanted to paint her in a rare moment of stillness to contrast her loud and bright personality."
Asked what she thought of having so many paintings created of herself, Romy said, "I like it - they're me!" When asked how long she had to sit for the Archie-shortlisted work, she pondered for a moment.
"30 hours, maybe."
Harriet jumped in then, saying it was more like "20 minutes at a time" and usually while she was watching television.
This was her first time entering the Young Archie competition. She said she hoped to enter the Archibald Prize next year.
The co-ordinator of the Young Archie competition at the Art Gallery of NSW, Victoria Collings, said it was started three years ago and run in conjunction with the Archibald Prize to get more young people interested in art. Collings will judge this year's competition with artist Del Kathryn Barton.
Entrants in four age categories - five to eight, nine to 12, 13 to 15, and 16 to 18 -submitted portraits of people who were special to them, someone known to them who played a significant role in their lives.
"We had a lot of mothers this year," Collings said.
There were 1284 entries this year including five from Canberra. Collings said Romy was "such a sophisticated painting" and was notable for its beauty and its striking blue background.
"It's amazing."
Harriet began taking art classes when she was six. She kept at it and is now a teacher at the Lavender Art Studios in Phillip. She said she was on a gap year before undertaking studies at the National Art School in Sydney next year. Oil was her preferred medium: "I've never found anything else like it - there's a lot of depth."
She said the medium was also a link to the Old Masters whose work she has admired in her study of art history.
