00:01Well, out of over 1,000 entrants in the 2026 Archibald Prize, the favourite for the Art
00:07Gallery of New South Wales staff has actually been announced here today at the Art Gallery.
00:13I've got the winner of the 2026 Packing Room Prize here with me, Sean.
00:18How are you?
00:19How are you feeling?
00:20Congratulations.
00:21Thank you very much.
00:22I'm, yeah, I'm very, very happy to receive it.
00:27It's such an honour, yeah.
00:29Tell me about the artwork behind me that you've done.
00:32So this is a, it's a double portrait in a way.
00:36So this is of the actor Jacob Collins, who's a British Australian actor, who I got to see
00:41play Hamlet two years ago in a wonderful production that he was in, in Melbourne.
00:49And that kicked off the idea of actually doing a portrait of the character Hamlet.
00:55And so Jacob and I collaborated with one another and, and, and this, this is the result.
01:01So it's a, it's a portrait of an artist doing his craft acting, but it's a portrait of the
01:07character that he's acting, which is Hamlet.
01:09It's quite confusing for a painting.
01:13How long did it take?
01:14Because it's incredibly detailed.
01:16Yeah.
01:17It took three months and that's because lots of revisions went into it.
01:20So the upper torso was repainted three times, um, just to get it as, as, as good as I could
01:28get it really.
01:29Yeah.
01:38Um, well, I, when I was younger, I, I loved art and I pursued art, but not long after leaving
01:47high school, I just couldn't really make it work.
01:50Um, and just went in a different direction.
01:53I chose a different career, uh, and obviously kept doing work from time to time, but I stopped
01:59painting for about 15 years.
02:01And then when I started again, it became more, um, something that I wanted to pursue professionally.
02:08And then there was just that moment where I took the plunge and left the career I was
02:14in.
02:14Um, and yeah, and made a shot out of being a professional artist.
02:19Yeah.
02:19Well, it's obviously worked.
02:21Well, yeah, now it has, as of today.
02:23Yeah, yeah.
02:24Well, thank you so much for your time and congratulations again.
02:28Well, now the judges of the Archibald Wynn and Sulman Prize have a week to decide on the winners
02:35of those prizes.
02:36They'll be announced next Friday and the exhibition will open to the public on Saturday.
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