Melbourne-based artist Fiona O’Byrne has won the $50,000 Richard Lester Prize for Portraiture with an oil-on-linen painting of her daughter. The award, reported by the ABC on Friday, recognises Luci, now, a work the judging panel unanimously selected for its softness, tenderness and naturalness.
The portrait depicts O’Byrne’s 20-year-old daughter seated on a stool with a neutral expression, according to the ABC. O’Byrne has painted her children for more than a decade, and the judges said the sitter’s familiarity with being painted by her mother gave this work a particular sense of ease.
In the organiser’s winners announcement, judges Alan Dodge, John McDonald and Bryony Nainby praised an “unlaboured handling of paint”. They noted the intimacy between artist and sitter, the way the light was captured, and small details including the sports jacket and nail varnish.
O’Byrne’s career in painting began at 36, the ABC reported. She has divided the past 10 years between painting and landscape architecture. She told the broadcaster she sought a creative activity outside her day job, took an art class and found a community that changed her life.
O’Byrne told the ABC that the prize money would let her explore new ideas without the pressure of selling the resulting work. She described the award as giving her freedom as an artist, after years of painting her children and observing how their relationships changed.
The award sits within a $140,000 prize pool for this year’s competition. The organiser’s July announcement said 40 finalist portraits had been selected from a record 1,177 entries. The field included 16 returning artists, seven of them previous prize winners.
Yasamin Khadembashi won the $10,000 Ashurst Perkins Coie Emerging Artist Prize for Immoral warrior. The organiser described a work combining oil paint with rhinestones, synthetic eyelash extensions and metal leaf. The judges commended the artist’s willingness to take risks with materials and the work’s ambitious scale.
Another Victorian finalist, Ben Howe, won the $25,000 Tony Fini Foundation Artist’s Prize with Matilda in blue, an oil-on-panel portrait. That award was chosen by the competition’s finalists, according to the organiser, rather than the panel that selected O’Byrne’s winning work.
The 40 finalist works are on display at Perth’s WA Museum Boola Bardip until 29 November, the ABC reported. The organiser has also announced regional touring to the Pilbara in 2027, following earlier tours to Esperance and Manjimup.
