Kerrie Lester Self-portrait as a bridesmaid

Kerrie Lester’s work has been hung in the Archibald Prize for the past ten consecutive years though this is her first self-portrait.

‘Painting a portrait is like being an actor,’ says Lester. ‘I take on that person’s personality. I have spent every Christmas for nine years living and breathing someone else’s life. But last year I had such a bad year that I couldn’t face another Christmas taking on someone else so I decided to paint myself.’

It is an idea she had been toying with for two or three years because, although she has come second on several occasions (the bridesmaid, as it were), she has yet to win the Archibald.

‘I wanted to paint a portrait that was full of life and movement, something that was a lot of fun and very relaxed,’ she says. Lester is pictured on the chair she uses in her studio; the empty stretcher suggesting it is time to move on to the next painting.

Lester describes painting herself as very weird. ‘I had to remove myself, forget about the face and concentrate on getting the portrait to work.’ Although she did find it a less stressful process, she admits she finds it slightly embarrassing. ‘I can’t look at it objectively.’

Born in Sydney in 1953, Kerrie Lester is a painter and installation artist. She studied at the National Art School from 1971 to 1974 and then at the Alexander Mackie College of Advanced Education in 1975. Since 1975 she has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions including the Australians of the Year Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra in 1996, the Portia Geach Memorial Award on five occasions, the Wynne, the Sulman and, of course, the Archibald.

This portrait was awarded the Packing Room Prize for 1998.