{"id":815,"date":"2012-07-11T11:38:03","date_gmt":"2012-07-11T01:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/?p=815"},"modified":"2012-07-11T11:38:03","modified_gmt":"2012-07-11T01:38:03","slug":"artist-in-line-for-top-prize-damian-bathersby-10th-july-2012-sunshine-coast-daily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/?p=815","title":{"rendered":"Artist in line for top prize &#8211; Damian Bathersby | 10th July 2012 | Sunshine Coast Daily"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb_share_1\" style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px;\"><a name=\"fb_share\" type=\"icon_link\" share_url=\"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/?p=815\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php\">Share<\/a><\/div><div><script src=\"http:\/\/static.ak.fbcdn.net\/connect.php\/js\/FB.Share\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div><p><strong>A CHANCE encounter with a stranger in a Nambour park has proven an unlikely recipe for success for artist <a href=\"http:\/\/redhillgallery.com.au\/MelBrigg.html\" target=\"_blank\">Mel Brigg.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Buderim painter has been named as a finalist in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moranprizes.com.au\/default.aspx?id=205\" target=\"_blank\">2012 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize<\/a> &#8211; an honour he says came completely out of the blue.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/?attachment_id=823\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-823\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-823\" title=\"Mel Brigg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/MEL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"552\" height=\"324\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/MEL.jpg 552w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/MEL-300x176.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 552px) 100vw, 552px\" \/><\/a>&#8220;I&#8217;m over the moon but I don&#8217;t see myself as a portrait artist, so it&#8217;s come as a shock,&#8221; the 61-year-old former South African said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m definitely more of a landscape artist with a figurative content and for the last couple of years I&#8217;ve been concentrating on the movement of people from strife-torn areas of the world.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have done portraits before but I&#8217;ve never been commissioned to do one because I can&#8217;t paint pretty people.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They have to have some interesting feature &#8211; the uglier the better.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mr Brigg&#8217;s successful work, entitled Joseph the Stranger, is of a man he met only briefly and has never seen since.<\/p>\n<p>He was returning home from Eumundi with a load of canvases when he stopped in a Nambour park for a coffee.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I saw this bloke walking towards me, looking weather-beaten and a bit sad and as he got closer I realised he was blind in one eye,&#8221; the self-taught artist said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He was a wild and woolly looking bloke.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It looked like he&#8217;d had his nose broken a few times &#8230; a bit of a sad character.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I suddenly realised I had to paint this man and I pulled a canvas out of the van and asked him to sit for me.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He said I&#8217;d have to be quick as he had a doctor&#8217;s appointment, so I put the canvas on the grass and painted him using just my hand and a large brush.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was literally done in 10 minutes and he went on his way.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I still have no idea who he was.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The portrait Mr Brigg describes as &#8220;a bit rough and ready&#8221; is in the running to win him $150,000 in what is one of the nation&#8217;s most prestigious portrait competitions.<\/p>\n<p>But he&#8217;s not expecting too much, admitting it&#8217;s probably not even one of his best pieces.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is certainly a major thing that has happened in my career but it&#8217;s not my best work,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t be able to say what is my best work because that&#8217;s up to the people who buy them.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Everyone who buys one likes to think they have my best piece.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The winner of the 2012 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize will be announced in Sydney next week, before the finalists embark on a national tour.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"SCD\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au\/story\/2012\/07\/10\/stranger-has-artist-in-line-for-top-prize-sunshine\/http:\/\/\" target=\"_blank\">Damian Bathersby | 10th July 2012 5:00 AM\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 | Sunshine Coast Daily<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"al2fb_like_button\"><div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n(function(d, s, id) {\n  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;\n  js = d.createElement(s); 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The Buderim painter has been named as a finalist in the 2012 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize &#8211; an &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/?p=815\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=815"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":825,"href":"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815\/revisions\/825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}