Peter Wegner Chef's coat – Graeme Doyle
oil on aluminium
118.5 x 118.5 cm; 123 x 123 cm framed
Five-time Archibald finalist Peter Wegner has painted his dear friend Graeme Doyle more than 100 times, including the portrait that won the 2006 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize.
He says: ‘Graeme is an accomplished artist, published poet and songwriter who identifies as an outsider artist living with schizophrenia. He’s also been involved as a long-term advocate for mental health. He’s still active in his own practice as an artist.
‘Graeme and I met at art school in 1982 and over the years one painting turned into another until now hundreds of paintings and drawings exist of Graeme in our 35-year collaboration and friendship.
‘In this painting I’ve given Graeme an imagined identity. I was also influenced by Hugh Ramsay’s Self-portrait in white jacket 1901–02, a painting I greatly admire.’
Born in New Zealand in 1953, Wegner arrived in Australia in 1957. He and Doyle studied at Phillip Institute of Technology (now RMIT) in Melbourne. He also has a Master of Fine Art from Monash University.