07/09/2026
Here’s my full painting that has been selected as a finalist in the Brisbane Portrait Prize for 2026.
When I had the idea for this painting, I had already been painting self portraits or portraits of friends wearing bird heads for masks, so when I saw this mask on FFMB’s MEGAFLOWER album art, I was instantly drawn to it and quickly scanned the credits of the vinyl to find out who made this thing.
It took me a while to reach out to Kate and pitch my idea, but eventually I did and she said yes… the only hurdle was that Kate lives in Melbourne, I live in Port Macquarie and the mask was with Good God in Brisbane. To qualify for the prize you have to have an in person session with your sitter, so as long as I could get the mask and meet Kate in Melbourne we were good to go.
There’s so much more to this story, so I’m going to rant about it in my newsletter and explain how it all happened and how it all crashed and burned for a minute, but then came out the other side to end up in a prize.
You can sign up to my newsletter through my website if you’re up for a read!
There is also a People Choice for the BPP which I’m going to link in my bio if you could spare a second to through a vote my way, that would be massively appreciated!
Thanks again to Kate Dillon for agreeing to this idea and to Good God for trusting me with the mask!
See you soon Brisbane Portrait Prize