Archibald Prize 2024 finalist Jill Ansell representing WA for a second time

A 2024 Archibald finalist portrait of prolific WA artist Leon Pericles came about after years of fellow artist Jill Ansell admiring his etchings from afar. The painting titled ‘Pericles: Just Scratching the Surface’ is among the 57 portraits that are finalists in this year’s Archibald Prize. “Leon is a prolific artist of great skill and creativity,” Ansell said. “He is much-loved in Western Australia for bringing our unique places and eccentric characters to life. “The first artwork my husband and I bought was one of Leon’s etchings. Years later, I met him in his Margaret River studio, surrounded by fabulous artworks and a collection of paraphernalia that any self-respecting museum would envy. “He is a great subject for a portrait, so I mustered the courage to ask him.” In the portrait, Pericles works at his desk with his headlamp on while he etches away. Ansell incorporated objects inside an old tobacco tin with the objects reflecting Pericle’s collections from his life and art, while the view is his imaginary WA town of Widjimorphup. “I wanted this portrait to capture Leon’s focus and studio interior, and the boundless space outside the window. This is very Pericles,” she said. The art teacher, who teaches at the Fremantle Fast Track campus, works across a wide range of subjects but her favourite is the portrait. “There is a lovely challenge to painting portraits and I find faces interesting and the stories they tell,” she said. “There is a moment when you are painting a face and when it looks back at you, you know that you have them (the person) and that is a really magic moment.” Her portrait of Pericles marks her second time as an Archibald finalist after she was selected last year for her self-portrait, ‘Looking East’. Her tongue-in-cheek self-portrait portrayed the difficulty Western Australian artists often experience in entering or being selected for prestigious national art prizes on the east coast of Australia mainly due to freight expenses. As the only WA finalist in this year’s awards, Ansell highlighted how difficult it can be to enter as a WA artist. “It feels absolutely lovely to be selected,” she said. “And it is a surprise, because there are so many people that enter and there are so many very good artists, so when you get in you know that you are really very lucky. “We have never had a WA winner, and it’s not that we don’t have good artists, many are just not participating because of the cost of sending your painting over east. I would love to see more WA artists getting in.”