Andrea achieves dream to reach national gallery
by Emma Ballingall Yarragon South artist Andrea Sinclair has achieved her dream of having a painting hung in the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.
Andrea’s self-portrait “Holding Back the Years” is hanging after being selected amongst the finalists in the inaugural Darling Portrait Prize.
The only downside is the gallery is now closed to the public due to COVID-19.
Andrea was able to attend the grand opening of the exhibition, which was opened for three weeks, prior to the closure. There is hope the exhibition may be extended when the gallery reopens.
However, the selected portraits can now be viewed online.
“It’s kind of a lifelong dream to be hanging in there,” said Andrea.
In its first year, Andrea believes the Darling Portrait Prize for Australian portrait painters capturing Australian sitters could comfortably sit alongside the Archibald Prize and Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, of which she was a finalist in 2014 and semi-finalist in 2015.
Her portrait “Holding Back the Years” was one of 300 entries before being announced amongst the 40 finalists. Voting for the people’s choice is currently being undertaken online.
Andrea’s painting explores the idea of women spending less time looking in a mirror at their own reflection as they age.
She said the work poses the question, “where’s that woman I used to know?”
Andrea’s paintings, predominately oil on panel, predominately explore the temporality of time, a sense of place, the felt relationship with memory and commonalities of being human.
Her work is figurative and usually based on old photos and home movies from the 1950s to 1970s.
Gippslanders may remember Andrea’s painting “Bonfire at Yarragon South” which won the best Gippsland work in the 2018 John Leslie Art Prize.
She has also just been announced as a finalist in the 2020 Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize.
Andrea moved to Yarragon South in 2017 and is originally from Canada. She completed her Masters of Fine Arts at RMIT in 2018.
Asked about the impact of COVID-19 on her creative process, Andrea said “in many ways, my life isn’t really different”.
It has been a chance to reflect on her next steps in art and upskill, namely in Photoshop.
Instagram has positively impacted at a time when many Australians are relying on social media.
“I’ve certainly had more sales from Instagram in the last little while as they are looking at things in a different way,” she said. “We can really get ourselves out there.”