Life in lockdown has created many a new phenomenon, including making it difficult for artists to paint live subjects.
For this reason, the famed Doug Moran National Portrait Prize has attracted a greater number of self-portraits than usual in 2021 as a reflection of a new reality.
It’s an irony not lost on semi-finalist Daniel Butterworth, long known for using himself as the model for his extensive body of work.
“I’ve always used myself for different reasons, one because I paint so much and I’m here as a model, free every day, and the other is if I get an idea I want to run with that idea, while I’m excited about it in my head,” he told the Express.
“And when I do political or social commentary, those ideas are mine, I don’t want to put them onto other faces, I’m going to own them.”
The Kyneton artist has had two works selected in the semi-finals of this year’s Prize, one a self-portrait titled Self Giving My All.
“(The self-portrait is) just about my dedication to art really and how art’s my love and I give it everything, every day I’m painting,” he said.
“The paint, I wanted it just quick, and meaty, and was happy to compromise detail for the paintwork.
“I loved the paintwork on this, I enjoyed how quickly it worked and I didn’t fuss about with it.”
Butterworth’s other semi-finalist entry, titled Dale, is a portrait of a follower of the artist’s work, Dale Hardy.
“My first commission was by him and he’s been following my work all through my career,” Butterworth said.
“He commissioned me to do a full nude of him, and this was the first go at it.
“I really enjoyed it but the body was awkward, it just didn’t feel relaxed.
“That could have been the picture, it was one of the first pictures I took and he was feeling a bit awkward.
“But I really enjoyed the head, so I just cropped the head off and that’s the one.”
ECLECTIC STYLE
Butterworth’s style is a mix of impressionism and realism, with a generous amount of expressionism thrown in.
“I like to try to keep my paint fresh and I want it to look like it’s been done easily,” he said.
“I don’t want it to look laboured, I want it to look like I’ve just thrown it together.”
Butterworth has been a finalist in the Doug Moran two times before, and a semi-finalist a few more. He was also a finalist in the Archibald Prize in 2016 for a portrait of celebrated local chef Annie Smithers.
The artist’s brother Matt is also a semi-finalist in this year’s Doug Moran. So too are Castlemaine artists Lyndell Brown and Charles Green and Maldon artist Tricia Migdoll.
The DMNPP finalists will be announced on Monday November 1. The winner declared on Friday November 30 followed by an online exhibition.
