Prudence Flint The stand

The subject of Prudence Flint’s portrait, Richard Stringer, is a Melbourne-based artist working across the fields of sculpture, painting and video.

‘I first met Richard in my 20s at a party when I was in my last year of art school. He promised to take me on a road trip up north, somewhere I’d never been before. He has been my companion and confidante for over 30 years, and in that time, we have lived, worked and travelled extensively together,’ says Flint.

‘He has been integral to my development as an artist and has been my constant witness for that time, and we have shared many passions. There has always been a candour and independence within the relationship. Last year I set out to paint, like in a dream, an intimate bedroom scene of Richard with a simulacrum of another woman.’

Born in 1962, Melbourne-based Flint won the 2016 Len Fox Painting Award, the 2010 Portia Geach Memorial Award, and the 2004 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize. She has held solo exhibitions across Australia. This is her seventh time as a finalist in the Archibald Prize. She is about to have her first international solo show in Dublin.