Charles Mouyat Matt Kean, NSW Minister for Environment and Energy

‘Matt Kean is responsible for an immensely challenging portfolio that must balance environmental protection, while ensuring our energy-hungry industries are supplied with sustainable base-load power,’ says Charles Mouyat of his sitter. ‘Matt is an outspoken champion of renewable energy, attracting both adulation and scorn. He is either a man for the times, or hopelessly ahead of them – only time will tell.’

For the portrait, Mouyat had Kean wear a reflective silver skivvy. ‘Matt is dressed in quicksilver to reflect his mercurial personality. My portrait consciously vacillates between portraying him as a futurist seer-saint and a secular idolater.

‘The flaming waratah represents both his passion for his job and the controversy that engulfed him over the summer. While being a committed Catholic, Matt has also drawn fire for his progressive position on abortion. Fearless and nimble in his rationales, Matt treads a bruising line between passion and duty as he searches for balance between his personal beliefs and his constituents’ expectations.’

Mouyat was born in Sydney in 1967. He has a Master of Art from the University of New South Wales and is also a creative director and musician. He is a first-time finalist in the Archibald Prize.