ONE of Federation University's and Victoria's most respected artists will forever have a place on the walls at the Mount Helen campus with the unveiling of Graeme Drendel's portrait of former vice chancellor Professor Helen Bartlett.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mr Drendel is an alumni of the university and last year was named the winner of the prestigious Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, the richest portrait prize in the world with a winners purse of $150,000.
Growing up in Ouyen, Mr Drendel was a late arrival to art, not working on his passion until he was 30.
"I started really painting in my 30s and I don't think I had an exhibition until I was nearly 40, so I did 10 years of very hard work, I was teaching as well a lot of that time," he said.
"I just worked very hard on weekends and nights to produce a body of paintings. I was fortunate to get accepted into Australian Galleries which is a big gallery in Melbourne, in fact a gallery I used to visit all the time.
"On those walls you saw the likes of Arthur Boyd, Brett Whiteley, all those wonderful painters. It was such a blast to think I had my own paintings on my walls. I've been fortunate to show there for about 25 years now."
Mr Drendel said the portrait of Professor Bartlett had been painted three years ago but was unable to be launched until now.
"I've painted hundreds, if not thousands, of figures in my time and I've painted hundreds of heads and faces, but nearly all of them I've made up out of my head," he said. "But painting portraits is a different thing, and it's only in the past five or seven years I've been doing it seriously.
"I was fortunate to get a commission of a vice chancellor at La Trobe University, then offered this one and I've recently done a retiring principal in Sydney.
"These are good to have, it's something that will go on. This is something that will last. There's a bit of pressure, it's an important thing to do. I always paint from life and most of the portraits I've done are usually in a couple of hours, I really enjoy the intensity of the two or so hours."
IN THE NEWS
Last year, Mr Drendel took home one of the biggest prizes in the world of art when his portrait of artist Lewis Miller won the Moran Prize.
"When I did the portrait of Lewis Miller, that was one of the first times I'd had to go through three sessions, I just could not get him right. At the time, I didn't even think about entering it in the prize," he said.
"We've had a great rapport, we've known each other for a long time. For me it's usually a badge of honour to get a portrait done in two hours. It was literally in the last half an hour of the third session it finally came together."
Now just one tap with our new app. Digital subscribers now have the convenience of faster news, right at your fingertips with The Courier. See how to download it below
