IPSWICH and the surrounding region will be strongly represented in the 2026 Brisbane Portrait Prize, with four artists selected as finalists for works exploring identity, resilience, faith, family and the human experience.
Ipswich-based artists Matthew Cheyne, Jason McNamara and Rebekah Walkarden are among this year’s finalists, alongside Somerset-based photographer Jim Filmer, whose striking portrait features Ugarapul Elder and Traditional Custodian Uncle Rossi Anderson.
For Matthew Cheyne, the inspiration for his oil-on- linen portrait, George Gittoes after Grünewald, stretches back almost two decades and halfway around the world.
Cheyne, an Ipswich-based artist working across painting, drawing and sculpture, first met renowned Australian artist and filmmaker George Gittoes in Berlin in 2009.
“This painting isn’t pitching George as a saint, more aligning him with Grünewald, the artist of the Isenheim Altarpiece, who was similarly looking through smoke and tears for something pure,” Cheyne said.
Fellow Ipswich artist and award-winning photographer Jason McNamara has taken a quieter approach with his portrait of Australian artist Leonard Brown, with the artwork focussed solely on the artist himself.
“As I spent time with Leonard, I was struck by the quiet, reflective nature that underpins both his life and his work,” McNamara said.
“Rather than photographing him alongside his paintings, I wanted the portrait to stand on its own, allowing his expression to suggest the contemplation and spirituality that influence his practice.”
For emerging multi- disciplinary artist and curator Rebekah Walkarden, the subject could hardly be more personal, with her oil painting Heal-All depicting her mother, Dr Maarit Harden.
She describes her mother as a GP, business owner, writer and observer who endured a difficult beginning to life but developed an extraordinary capacity for empathy and helping others.
Rather than depicting her mother through her professional achievements, Walkarden chose to capture something more intimate – the simple act of dancing.
“In this painting I wanted to capture her dancing as a representation of her rediscovering a childlike joy that she didn’t get to fully realise as a child forced to grow up too fast,” Walkarden said.
Somerset-based visual artist and photographer Jim Filmer has also turned his lens towards a story of resilience, family and identity.
His black-and-white photographic portrait I Am Ugarapul depicts Ugarapul Elder and Traditional Custodian Uncle Rossi Anderson.
Filmer said Uncle Rossi’s life had been marked by an unwavering devotion to family despite profound hardship and loss.
The winners will be announced tomorrow, with the finalists’ exhibition opening at the State Library of Queensland the following day.
