Tony Abbott's face might be one of the most recognisable in Australia, but sculptor Linda Klarfeld found herself caught off guard after sitting with the former prime minister for more than an hour.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mr Abbott's distinctive ears and Roman nose - prime fodder for the nation's cartoonists and photographers for decades - were almost too attractive to sculpt.
Commissioned by the City of Ballarat to create a bronze bust for its Prime Ministers' Avenue, the Czech-born sculptor wanted to avoid a predictable caricature.
The Courier reported last year that the City of Ballarat was forced to go it alone on funding the bill for the $25,000 sculpture.
Council footing the bust bill was a new arrangement after the trust established by Ballarat-born politician Richard Armstrong Crouch bequeathing funds for maintaining the project was exhausted.
Ms Klarfeld’s $25,000 commission has been sent to a Melbourne foundry and is expected to be unveiled in the city's botanic gardens later this year.
"It wasn't an easy one. I personally think he's quite attractive, and I always say attractive people are hard to sculpt because it's hard to make them look real," she said.
"He has a Roman nose, his ears are not big and I don't know why the cartoonists always pull them out the way they do, but for sculpture they're very good.
"All his features are very strong. He has a chiselled face, which is very good for sculpture."
Australia's prime ministers are immortalised in the collection of busts established by Federation politician Richard Armstrong Crouch and, after months of work, Ms Klarfeld will become the first woman to contribute.
The final design is a closely guarded secret.
Ms Klarfeld said the former leader was patient while she made a plasticine maquette model, praising Mr Abbott's appreciation of civic art and a bust of Winston Churchill that looks over his Parliament House office.
"It's almost like a preparatory sketch a painter makes on the spot, but three-dimensional in my case," she said.
"I wanted the bust to be very real. Of course it's realistic, but I've worked hard to capture a sense of him as a human being and not just a prime minister."
Busts of the first six prime ministers were unveiled by Victoria's governor Sir Winston Duggan in 1940, with the Crouch bequest providing funds for their successors.
Ballarat mayor Samantha McIntosh said an unveiling date for Mr Abbott's bust was being negotiated, coming after former Labor leader Julia Gillard took part in a ceremony in 2014.
"It is a significant avenue and one that many people admire and love. There have been large crowds at all the unveilings that I've witnessed and it's undoubtedly a source of local pride that former prime ministers come and visit," she said.
Mr Abbott described working with Ms Klarfeld as "a pleasure".
"I feel thrilled and humbled to be on the avenue of the prime ministers and am looking forward to seeing it in the future," he said.