Portrait of Don Chipp

Acrylic on Canvas
1800 mm x 1160 mm

In 1977, I had a portrait of Don Chipp selected for the 1977 Archibald Prize. Only 35 paintings were selected from over 2000 entries, and it was an honour to be hung among such notable artists as Kevin Connor, who won the that year, Clifton Pugh, Joshua Smith, and Martin Sharp amongst others. 

I met Don Chipp in 1976 soon after he left the Liberal Party and formed the Australian Democrats political party. He was disillusioned with the lack of integrity and honesty in mainstream politics, and his slogan “keep the bastards honest” was a very well known slogan then and used in the late 70s, 80s and 90s in Australian politics quite widely. It is still relevant today and I have reworked the painting and included the slogan, as well as making his wrinkles more realistic, which I promised I would not do for the Archibald prize. 

I was fascinated by his wrinkles, and I had a number of settings with him and when he was stressed his face was extremely wrinkled. On the third sitting he was on holidays, and to my surprise, his face and skin had smoothed out considerably, and all of that actually helped finish the painting. In 2015, long after Don had passed away I then  reworked wrinkles from photographs, and I am much happier with the painting as it is today as I feel it is a more truthful representation of the very sincere and honest man that he was. 

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Man vs Nature