Nicholas Harding Portrait of John Bell

Nicholas Harding has admired John Bell’s ‘incredible stage presence’ for many years. They met initially through a mutual friend, Rex Irwin, Harding’s art dealer. Then after seeing Bell in Steven Berkoff’s production of Coriolanus for the Bell Shakespeare Company, Harding did a drawing of him. Bell liked it so much he wrote to Harding saying that if he ever wanted to paint him for the Archibald he should give him a call.

When Harding did call, Bell was frantically busy with rehearsals for Strindberg’s A dream play, but he managed to squeeze in a few hurried sittings.

‘He was very unpretentious, straight-forward and passionate about what he does,’ says Harding. ‘I was surprised by how affable he was, compared to his intensity of focus in the theatre. I sat in the front row for King Lear (directed by Barrie Kosky) and the energy coming off the stage was incredible.’

Having got him in the studio, Harding was equally impressed by Bell’s ‘extraordinary head. Those bones! And the very full lips and intense gaze.’ The lips took a bit of doing, says Harding, as did the shadow tones on the hands. The choice of a green background and blue tee shirt were formal rather than symbolic decisions in that they were colours which complemented Bell’s skin tones.

Born in London in 1956, Harding arrived in Australia in 1965. He completed a Bachelor of Arts in 1975, travelled through Europe then returned to Australia to a freelance career as an animator, illustrator and painter. He has been hung in the Archibald Prize on six previous occasions and his portrait of Margaret Olley was commended in the 1998 Archibald.