Former mayor Samantha McIntosh's fearsome will to protect Ballarat's heritage was one of the reasons Garry Anderson was so drawn to catching her image in a portrait, the renowned artist says.
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Councillor McIntosh has made around 20 sittings with the Golden Point painter and sculptor, some lasting for a few hours, as he captured her likeness in oil on canvas.
Mr Anderson, who was commissioned by Victoria's Parliament House to paint the official portrait of former Premier Steve Bracks for Queen's Hall in 2009, has a career spanning 40 years. His home is a gallery of portraits, paintings and sculptures which he plans to open to the public later this year.
He says Ms McIntosh's great desire to preserve Ballarat's built heritage and her willingness to see women recognised for their contribution to the city moved him to offer her the opportunity to be a subject.
"I've seen her campaigning for the protection of a lot of the great heritage buildings around Ballarat," Mr Anderson says.
"She deserves to have her image recorded in paint, and I'm following in that tradition of recording our culture, our people and our history."
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Cr McIntosh says aside from the great honour of being invited to sit for such a recognised artist, Mr Anderson's great skill, knowledge and expertise left her with no doubt the painting would be successful.
She says it also adds to what is a woefully inadequate record of our female politicians in the city.
"The first year I was mayor I spent time trying to find old mayoral portraits," Cr McIntosh says.
"We found quite a few from the late 1800s and early 1900s, and I was hunting to find female representatives of the city. I found Enid Buckley, who was involved in saving Adam Lindsay Gordon's cottage and moving it to the Botanical Gardens. So her portrait is in the mayoral lounge at Town Hall.
"It's amazing to know that we have an artist of Garry's standing living here in Ballarat, and it speaks to how much skill we have in Ballarat, and who else the council could be working with, and our recent UNESCO listing should give us impetus to do that."
The painting of a portrait does require long hours spent in the company of just two people. How did they find each other's company?
"I did wonder how long Garry would be prepared to sit here with me and listen to me," Cr McIntosh says.
"It was wonderful," Mr Anderson interjects.
An alumnus of the Claremont School of Art, which provided him with the added bonus of studying anatomy, Garry Anderson is a quiet achiever in the world of art. He is represented in collections both in Australia and overseas.
