Angus Nivison Annie Lewis, September 2001

Ann Lewis is a patron and benefactor of the arts, an arts administrator and an art collector. She owned the first commercial gallery that Angus Nivison showed with, in 1978: Gallery A. “So I have known her ever since I was a painter. Plus she is originally from the country and I always try and paint people from the country,” says Nivison who hails from Walcha in regional NSW.

The portrait was painted over the course of a year. It started off “very pink” but in the light of recent horrific world events it didn’t feel quite right and turned from “an optimistic painting into a slightly grim one,” admits Nivison. The first sitting took place just after September 11 2001. Lewis was due to go to New York in October for a meeting at the Museum of Modern Art but was uncertain whether the meeting would go ahead. Nivison began working from drawings done at that first sitting. When Lewis sat for him again six months later he wasn’t happy with the portrait and completely repainted it. “If you look up close you can see the pink underneath.”

Asked why he started with pink, he chuckles. “That’s what Annie said. It was because she is such a strong figure, physically big and larger than life in a business sense and in the arts world, and I wanted to make a comparison with that. It was a yellowy pink with a nostalgic feel because I wanted the portrait to be introspective and capture a side of Annie you don’t often see – her tenderness and softness – without compromising her strength. But it ended up being dark, which suits my nature! Most of my paintings are dark.”

Born in 1953, Nivison has exhibited since 1974. This the second time he has been represented in the Archibald Prize. He is represented in the Wynne Prize for the fourth time this year.

Nivison’s portrait of Lewis is now in the collection of the Bank Art Museum Moree, NSW.