I’ve been asked to talk about my recent portrait of Mr R.G. Menzies, Prime Minister of Australia.
I was approached by a magazine from America to do this particular job for a special issue that is coming out within a week or two, and for that purpose I had to travel to Canberra and interview the Prime Minister in the offices of Parliament House. And there I made my studies. They consisted of small watercolour paintings, and I think altogether I had about 40 minutes with the Prime Minister for this purpose.
I always paint, as I think, a straight portrait and I go for the character of the person and, in this case, I think there was very strong character and I’d be very foolish to play around and do silly things with an international figure of that type. And I think I got a fairly good job done in the time allowed me.
Oh well, we’ll see the results when they come out.
Usually I like to get to know a person well before I do a portrait, sometimes at least a week, or have a few drinks with them or dine with them, to get them relaxed and to pick out their salient mannerisms. In the case of Mr Menzies, I have only met him once or twice over a period of about 15 years, socially, so I really didn’t know him, which made the job more difficult. And in this particular case, in the surrounds of Parliament House and offices, there is a tenseness, and relaxing was really a frightening business. I couldn’t really relax, and I had to take my studies away, then try to get everything from that build-up, with what I remembered of him. As I say, I didn’t really know the man well.
