Nicholas Harding Portrait of Margaret Olley

Nicholas Harding had a portrait of Margaret Olley in last year’s Archibald Prize – in fact, she is one of the most painted faces in the history of Australian art.

‘Last year’s portrait was a good start but I’d been chasing her for some time for a sitting and it came very close to the Archibald deadline so it was quickly done and didn’t achieve all I would have liked. Last year I had her in a non-descript space. This time I wanted to put her in her own space, to reflect some of her own environment. She was adamant about posing in that chair which is in the darkest part of the house so everything emerges from the shadows. As your eye adjusts it starts to pull objects out of the gloom.’

Since Harding considers Olley to be a very up-front, passionate person ‘whose life has been an act of will if you like’, he wanted to paint her front-on, confronting viewers with her gaze. ‘Apart from painting the figure and the head, which was a challenge in itself, the real challenge was to ensure that everything in the composition directs you back to her and her gaze. The gaze has to be the most important thing.’

Born in London in 1956, Harding arrived in Australia in 1965. He completed a Bachelor of Arts in 1975, travelled through Europe then returned to Australia to a freelance career as an animator, illustrator and painter. He has had a work hung in the Archibald each year since 1994.