Painting a picture of inspiring Australians

LENNOX Head artist Angus McDonald has revealed he has already started work on next year’s Archibald Prize entry, but is remaining tight lipped on the subject.

McDonald was a finalist in the 2024 Archibald Prize and won the ANZ People’s Choice award for his portrait of Indigenous writer and academic Marcia Langton AO, who was a crucial figure in developing the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

“When you’re an artist and you’re interested in people who are making a big impact you can cheat your way to intimacy and ask them to sit for you and hang out with you,” he said.

So far McDonald has done one sitting with the person he’s painting for 2025, who is another inspiring Indigenous figure, but that’s all he will say.

“I’m not going to let the cat out of the bag just yet,” he said.

“I have to paint it first.”

McDonald has been a finalist in the Archibald Prize seven times and also won the People’s Choice award in 2020 for his portrait of Kurdish Iranian writer and filmmaker Behrouz Boochani.

“It’s a great award to win because it’s the vote of the people, but I also like that it’s an award that you can very naturally share with your sitter, because people might like the painting but they’re also expressing some sort of respect or admiration for the person you painted,” he said.

Early in his career, McDonald primarily painted other artists and people he knew, but he has come to see the Archibald Prize as a platform to share the stories of people who have made important contributions to Australian society.

His way of thinking began to change in 2016 when McDonald took a year off to think about where he wanted to go with his practice.

While visiting friends in Greece, he became extremely moved by the plight of people fleeing the Syrian conflict.

“I decided to pivot my practice and use my art to make some kind of greater impact socially,” he said.

“I also started making films to reach more people.”

His first feature documentary, Freedom is Beautiful, about two Kurdish Iranian refugees, premiered at the Sydney Film Festival in 2023 and also screened at the Byron Bay International Film Festival.