Elizabeth

Dr Elizabeth Cameron Dalman OAM (b. 1934), choreographer, teacher and performer, trained in classical ballet and modern dance and performed in London, Europe and New York. She established the Australian Dance Theatre in 1965, Australia’s first professional modern dance company, and was its artistic director for ten years. After moving to Lake George, New South Wales in 1989, Dalman founded the Mirramu Creative Arts Centre and later the Mirramu Dance Company, where her focus has been on the creation of site-specific works. She tours internationally as an actor/dancer, most recently with Michael Keegan-Dolan’s award-winning Swan Lake/Loch na hEala.

Anthea da Silva was awarded the 2020 Darling Portrait Prize for this painting of Dalman. She said of her winning work, 'I am inspired by Elizabeth’s constant reinvention as a dancer, choreographer, actor, director and environmental activist.' National Portrait Gallery Director Karen Quinlan AM said, 'Anthea da Silva’s Elizabeth, 2019, is a gentle, beguiling portrait that reveals the fragile, fluid nature of the human body. Here is a woman who has spent her life moving and while she is captured here sitting, she looks set to leap. We were struck by the deliberate power of the seemingly unfinished elements of the work because, like Elizabeth, the complete picture is yet to be filled in – there is much yet for her to do.'

Darling Portrait Prize 2020 Winner

Gift of the artist 2020
© Anthea da Silva