Jiawei Shen was born in Manchuria and he ended up when he came to Australia, in Sydney sitting on Circular Quay doing sketches of passers-by and selling them. Fast foward about 15 years, he has painted me, he has painted the Princess of Denmark. Marilyn and I went out to his home in Bundoora, and he gave me a chair and said “I’ve got to get ready, you sit in the chair”. So I sat in the chair and crossed my legs, and when he came back he siad “hold that, I’ll paint you like that”. He was always someone who you felt you were never at a distance from. I’ve always loved the painting because it’s got that personal feel about it. It was a great experience, and whenever I go back to the Portrait Gallery it gives me a lot of pleasure to see his work on the wall in the Gordon Darling Hall.
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