Greek Australian Rose Vassiliou may not have been among the finalists for Australia’s most prestigious portraiture prize, but the five-year-old from Perth has set a benchmark as the Archibald’s youngest-ever entrant.
Rose’s mum, Renee Vassiliou, is a full-time contemporary artist in Perth and is bursting with pride at the enthusiasm of her daughter, who’s still a pre-school pupil at St Denis Primary School in Joondanna.
“I’m so proud of my darling Rose for entering the Archibald. It made me smile when she asked me if she could enter. I work as an artist myself and she loves to watch me paint too,” Vassiliou told Neos Kosmos.
“It’s important to me that my children can explore art materials, including paint, in their own way.
“They have so much fun and it’s far more creative to give them the paint and let them just go for it without structured formal activity.”
A trip to the Art Gallery of New South Wales a few years ago, when Rose was just a toddler, sparked the youngster’s interest in portraiture.
“She visited the Archibald exhibition and voted for her favourite piece in the People’s Choice Award,” Vassiliou said.
“This year, she asked if she could enter the painting competition herself.”
Asked by her mother what the best thing was about entering the Archibald Prize, Rose said “getting it in the newspaper” and admitted knowing she wouldn’t win it.
“I knew I wouldn’t win because I saw, when I was watching TV with Baba and Papu, all the other people’s paintings and I thought they were better … doesn’t matter,” Rose said.
Vassiliou said it was school holidays in Perth and Rose had been enjoying painting with her sister with the subject matter this time being ‘rainbows’.
When Rose wasn’t painting she enjoyed going to the park, reading books, building cubbies and “playing schools”.
“I like school and the holidays,” Rose said.
The five-year-old submitted a mixed media self-portrait titled Underwater, which was inspired by a trip to the Beatty Park swimming pool in North Perth.
A spokeswoman for the Art Gallery of New South Wales, which administers the Archibald Prize, said it was likely Rose was the youngest entrant in the competition’s 94-year history.
Vassiliou said packing and delivering the work to Sydney was a challenge in itself but was worth the effort.
The winner of this year’s Archibald Prize, announced last Friday, was Nigel Milson for his portrait of Sydney barrister Charles Waterstreet
.
Milsom’s canvas – the largest painting of the 47 finalists in this year’s prize – presented Waterstreet as a larger-than-life figure.
It is the third time Newcastle artist Milsom has been an Archibald Prize finalist and it is his first Archibald win. The Archibald Prize awards the winning artist $100,000.