Melanie Gray Disquietude

Melanie Gray has painted her daughter Grace, who was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at 18 and is now 22. She says: ‘The title Disquietude reflects the unease of the internal battle Grace lives with as she navigates the difficulties that come with her condition. Though medication has eased the symptoms of ADHD, Grace continues to learn the best way to maintain her attention.

‘The painting took three days. I have used her pink-dyed hair and shadows on her cheeks to make an oval shape that moves the viewer’s eye around her face. Her green eyes and the green paint under her chin make an inverse triangle, the gold earrings and nose-ring create the base of another triangle, moving the eye to her blonde hair.’

Gray was born in Sydney in 1963 and completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Art, San Francisco, on scholarship in the 1980s. She has a Master of Fine Arts from the University of New South Wales. This is the first time she has entered the Archibald Prize.