Amanda King Natasha Stott-Despoja

Amanda King, who studied at Newcastle Art School, works predominantly as a documentary filmmaker. However, four years ago, she returned to visual art as well and began experimenting with collage. “I’m well and truly hooked now!” she says. “I find collage more interesting than paint, a more interesting texture, so I’ve been persistent with it even though I’ve realised that it is fairly unconventional and may not always be taken seriously.” She tends to use the paper from fashion magazines “because it’s glossy and the colours are interesting.”

Watching Natasha Stott Despoja, a Democrats senator, on television, King was struck by how very articulate she was. “She’s clear, she sticks to the point and she doesn’t give you political speak. And she’s young and she’s a woman. I haven’t done exclusively women but most of my portraits are of women because there’s been such a gender imbalance in portraiture in the past.”

King sent colour photocopied examples of her collage portraits to Stott Despoja so that she was well aware of King’s technique. She does only one sitting “because most of these people are fairly busy so I complement the sitting with photography and three sketches in the size that the work will be. Drawing on my film background I do three different ‘shots’ – a full-body shot, a mid shot and a close-up – then I decide which I think works best for the portrait.”