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The painting features Mary Hanna, Olympic dressage rider, revered horse trainer, and one of only five Australians to attend six Olympic Games, comforting one of her prized horses Syrianna, and her husband Rob and their family dog.<\/p>\n
Mr Truong was inspired by Ms Hanna’s personal story, which he learnt about substantially through her autobiography A Long Rein: An Equestrian Journey.<\/p>\n
He was then able to conduct the compulsory Archibald Prize sitting at Ms Hanna’s Dressage Centre in Scotchmans Hill, Statene Park, before completing his works at his gallery.<\/p>\n
“It was mesmerising for me to see her train the horses, I’d only ever seen her do it on the television,” Mr Truong added.<\/p>\n
“But seeing it in person, she just has a unique way of interacting with them, it looks effortless, but Mary said that’s the idea \u2013 it was very impressive.”<\/p>\n
Mr Truong noted that there was a personal connection in the painting that not many people were aware of.<\/p>\n
The horse located in the stable door of the bottom-left corner of the painting is his daughter’s horse Blondie, one of three horses that the Truong family owns.<\/p>\n
Ms Hanna has seen the completed works and was extremely happy with the finished product, according to Mr Truong.<\/p>\n
The finalists of the Archibald Prize will be announced on April 27.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A BELLARINE art gallery owner has thrown his hat in the ring for the nation’s most prestigious arts prize for the first time since he arrived to Australia 16 years ago. A Portarlington resident and owner of the Fat Fox Art Gallery in Bellarine, Trung Truong has made his first submission to the coveted Archibald […]<\/p>\n