JANINE GOOD

Artist Statement: Prof. Damien Kingsbury Portrait

Damien’s World, Oil on canvas 102x102cm

This portrait captures a vulnerability to the sitter that he usually hides from the public eye.

I had only recently reconnected with Damien after 30 years. I found him just as passionate, an interesting and generous person with a wealth of knowledge having written numerous books as an Academic. The life of Professor Damien Kingsbury has been an extremely full one so how do you incorporate this into a portrait? With only a month till the portrait deadline I decided to just paint him as he was – a humble communicator who now appreciates his home life.

Importantly I find Damien to have an interesting face. The features I wanted to focus on are his piercingly blue eyes and his uniquely crooked mouth, the result of an accident he’d had when I first met him in the 1980s.  I also wanted to indicate his close association to Timor-Leste, acknowledging his official duties there and that it is the place where he met the love of his life, so I placed the Timor-Leste flag close to his heart.

My portrait shows him in conversation in his living space where the light creates a kind of halo around him, I think appropriate for the quiet but extremely important contribution he makes.  

My first Archibald entry painted in 2017 - unsuccessful - but taught me to look at portraiture in a more serious light.

I wasn’t satisfied with the likeness of this portrait so tried again in 2019.

This work was selected for the 2017 Melbourne Salon des Refusés exhibition Hidden Faces at Pan Pacific Melbourne.