Kelly in the Media

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Wednesday, 2 August 2017

SALA artists reflect on Adelaide’s homegrown faces

Sophie Perri | City Messenger

In the spirit of this month’s South Australian Living Artists (SALA) Festival, we’ve asked six local talents to paint half a portrait of a recognisable Adelaide face.

We’ve been left gobsmacked after each canvas delivery from the artists — and it’s motivated us even more to get out and see the other exhibitions happening in town this month. We suggest you do the same. Perhaps start with this one?

This is a picture of an artwork. The original picture can been seen at the bottom half, and on top of the face is a circle painting that stands apart from the picture behind. The photo / painting is of Kelly Vincent slightly smiling with black rim glasses and a white lace shirt on. she is sitting in the Legislative council in front of the president's chair.

Kelly Vincent

Who: Dignity Party representative in South Australian Parliament (the youngest woman ever elected to an Australian parliament and the first Australian to be elected on the platform of disability rights)

Artist: Megan Roodenrys

Photo by: Chris Parkhurst

How they met: “I met Kelly two or three years ago — her media adviser Anna Tree used to go rowing with my sister,” Megan says. “When Anna got the role and I used to have cafes (such as Ginger’s and The Flinders St Project, in which Megan constructed that epic wooden spoon installation) she was looking for function support and asked me and my partner if we were interested in that. We got to meet her, I really appreciated the work she was doing and I liked her as a person. I did a large portrait of her for the Archibald.”

The process: “Half of the photographic image is underneath. I liked the idea of putting the square of the photograph with the circular portrait — and because it’s a circle, I made it spin. I thought that was like a symbol of political life — I’m sure she often feels like her head is spinning. It’s an oil painting and took about six hours. I had some fun with it.”

Kelly says: “Megan was introduced to me by a mutual friend and painted an amazing, but very humbling, portrait of me that was entered into the Archibald Prize. I’m happy to say we’ve become friends; I greatly admire her talent. It’s always hard to comment on a photo or painting of yourself, but I think Megan’s captured the moment. It’s from a photo taken in the Legislative Council.”

More information on Megan Roodenrys at richmondroadstudios.com.au

Find the other artworks here