Lewis Miller Poppy King

Lewis Miller was going to paint his friend Poppy King for the 1998 Archibald then decided to go instead with a third portrait of artist Allan Mitelman, which subsequently won the prize.

Cosmetics manufacturer King was the 1995 Young Australian of the Year. ‘I admire her,’ says Miller. ‘She has been going through a rough patch, selling her business, so it was an interesting time to paint her when things weren’t going so well.’

Miller also felt it was time he tackled a portrait of a woman. ‘Technically young women are more difficult to paint. You can’t take the liberties with a female face that you can with a male face – well, I can’t. I didn’t want to use any devices; no symbols or tricks at all. Once again, I wanted the portrait to be quite spare. It evolved over the course of many sittings. The bulk of the picture was made in the first sitting then it was a matter of fine-tuning, changing things until I was happy.’

Born in Melbourne in 1959, Miller studied at the Victorian College of the Arts. This is his seventh time as an Archibald finalist.