Laura Jones' painting of novelist Tim Winton has won the Archibald Prize-the top portraiture prize in Australia.
Jones says she chose Winton as a subject because a painting of the writer had never been a finalist in the Archibald Prize, and that she wanted to shine a light on him and his advocacy for the environment. She is an admirer of Winton's work, having studied his 1991 Miles Frank-winning novel, Cloudstreet, in high school. She met Winton at an environmental advocacy event in 2017, shortly after Jones undertook an artist's residency near the Great Barrier Reef, and watched his documentary, Ningaloo Nyingguloo, about the fight to save Western Australia's Ningaloo Reef.
Following a meeting with Winton in Fremantle, Jones was inspired to paint his portrait as a monotype, "using thin brushstrokes and letting the paint bleed across the canvas like ink into paper. Dreamy yet direct." She added: "I wanted to convey the landscape in his face to show the emotion of the topics we were talking about. Tim said that the purpose of art is not to persuade, but to enchant, and I really think he does that with his work, and his work really speaks for itself."
Most of the portrait is simply painted, with only Winton's face given intricate details. Upon calling Jones to congratulate her, he said "he looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders."
Jones is the 12th woman to win the prize since its establishment in 1921. She said: "As a little girl in Kurrajong, I dreamed about being an artist. I've been lucky enough to make that dream come true. More than any other event today shows that I wasn't completely crazy."
All the finalists in the Archibald Prize, as well as in the Wynne and Sulman Prizes 2024, will be exhibited at New South Wales's Art Gallery until September 8.
