LOCAL ARTIST CELEBRATED AT MPRG’S ARCHIBALD PRIZE 2023 Carrum Downs artist Jaq Grantford has always had a passion for art. She recalls from the age of five drawing portraits of her mum and loving the challenge of making it just like her. Jac says, “Not only how she looked physically, but the essence of who she was.” Channelling her focus and detail has paid off with Jaq being named as the Archibald Prize 2023 ‘People’s Choice’ winner for her winning portrait of former Playschool presenter and beloved Australian personality Noni Hazlehurst. Of her subject, Jaq said, "She's a brilliant actor, and a brilliant presenter, of course, we all loved her in Play School.” Jaq hoped to capture Noni’s warmth in the awardwinning piece, and the votes cast by the 15,542 visitors to the Art Gallery of NSW certainly proved that she’s done so. Showing exclusively at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, the Archibald Prize 2023 is Australia’s oldest and most prestigious art award. Thousands of art lovers and curious cultural adventurers will head to Mornington to see the 57 portraits hanging side-by-side, including Jaq’s now famous portrait and this year’s winning work of Montaigne by Julia Gutman.
E ssence
34 | PENINSULA
October 2023
Portraits have always intrigued the viewer: the eyeline, the position of the model, the story behind the sitter. For many, it’s the first time a visitor can be up close and personal with a public figure or cultural identity from this generation. A portrait reflects the people of our time for future generations to experience and discuss. “I think that’s the real challenge as a portrait artist. And not only for portraits, but for anything else that you are creating. To paint or sculpt something that tells a story about that subject, and conveys to people something of its essence, is just such a joy for me,” says Jaq. For more than a century, art lovers have flocked to the annual Archibald Prize event to experience people and faces of our time and culture, and Jaq’s portrait of Noni Hazlehurst is no exception to the array of works by Australian artists in the 2023 touring exhibition. This is not Jaq’s first award-winning portrait. In 2022, she took the top spot at the Darling Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery of Australia and in 2019 the Melbourne artist won the 2019 Kennedy Art Prize and Best in Show at the American Art Awards.