Dick Watkins Adam Cullen

Richard Watkins – or Dick as he is generally known – and Adam Cullen were talking together at the 2000 Archibald Prize (which Cullen won for his portrait of actor David Wenham) and decided that they would paint each other for the 2001 Archibald. They agreed to use exactly the same size canvas and laughed at the idea of being hung next to each other.

Watkins went ahead and painted Cullen. A week or so before the Archibald deadline he got a call from Cullen to say his portrait of Watkins wasn’t working “so the great plan collapsed”. Watkins, however, decided to press on and entered his portrait.

“I was thinking about him as the new genius coming over the horizon,” says Watkins with a laugh. “Something impressive was called for so I dressed him in my old dressing gown!”

Cullen did a couple of sittings for Watkins who also took photos. “It’s quite hard to get a grip on him,” he says. “Adam’s got a round football face with smallish features. With me a portrait either comes off or it’s a complete mess. This one came off.”

Born in Sydney in 1937, Watkins is a largely self-taught artist, who was first hung in the Archibald Prize in 1958.