Kim Spooner 'blue' (Kerry O'Brien)

This is the second portrait Kim Spooner has painted of journalist and ABC TV presenter Kerry O’Brien, the first having been done in 1995. ‘I wanted to paint him because I saw in him attributes that I like to paint about in my general work,’ says Spooner. ‘I am a figurative painter and put simply my work is about the positive, about abundance and optimism. Kerry O’Brien’s incisive intelligence combined with the lovely warmth that emanates from him conformed to that criteria.

‘I like to paint humanists; people who are generous in spirit and great contributors to our times.’

Spooner’s portrait of O’Brien has been painted in tempera, a technique using egg yolk as the binder for pigment.

Born in Sydney in 1955, Spooner has been hung in the Archibald, Sulman and Dobell Prizes.