Daylesford Face Off, 2012

I’ve driven over to Trentham (17mins) for the Art & Craft Fair. So many fabulous artists are in this area and they keep complimenting me on my interesting face (is that a compliment or not?). Surrounded by all this art has got me thinking. As the head of England, significant events in HRH The Queen’s life are commemorated by commissioned portraits. In her absence on these shores, Dame Edna in semi-retirement, Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman spending more and more time in America, Kylie living on the stage and Eric Bana lost in his Incredible Hulk costume; I’m probably the most famous face in Australia right now.

I need a portrait painted! It will go on the back cover of my soon to released book, To Daylesford, with Love. But to whom will this honour be bestowed? Pete Goodlet, the TV celebrity landscape gardener and abstract modern artist or Jodie Fergusson-Batte, wonderful example of doing something useful with mood swings and lunatic tendencies?  But I do love Jo Ruchel, curator of Daylesford’s answer to Mini MOMA and her outrageous use of line and colour.  What to do? What to do? What to do?

Only fair solution… have a competition and let the best painter win. And so it was. Introducing the contestants of the inaugural Daylesford Face Off, 2012...Read more...