Melissa Beowulf Ken Done

Melissa Beowulf was drawn to painting high-profile designer/artist Ken Done because, she says, ‘he’s such an Australian icon and yet he’s so underestimated as an artist. I don’t understand the vilification of him as an artist. I admire him immensely as a professional and he has put Sydney on the international map.’

Done did several sittings for Beowulf at his studio in the inner Sydney suburb of Redfern, one of them while he himself was painting which Beowulf enjoyed enormously. Beowulf initially considered portraying Done painting but found that the composition didn’t work for her. Instead she shows him holding a picture of himself: the icon and the artist.

‘The composition that worked for me became a simple structure,’ she says. ‘He’s got an amazing face which is contoured in ways I hadn’t expected. I do sculpture as well so I tried to attack it in a sculptural way I guess. And then there’s his trademark smile with the moustache curling around his mouth. When I first started drawing him I felt there was something missing, then I realised it was his smile. No-one would recognise him without it.’

Born and raised in Sydney, Beowulf is now based in Canberra. Originally a graphic artist, she took time out to raise four children, returning to her art in 1996. She specialises in portraiture, though she also works in other media such as sculpture, pastel and silk-screening.