Artist Andrea Huelin has taken home the Art Gallery of NSW's Packing Room Prize with her debut entry to the country's most prestigious portrait competition.
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The painting, titled Clown Jewels, shows beloved comedian Cal Wilson, with her trademark dyed pink hair and a hodge-podge crown of baubles flanked by sawed-off doll limbs, in a chair fit for Napoleon.
Huelin is a journalist turned painter best known for her still-life paintings, so her portrait of Wilson was a marked departure from her portfolio and her first entry into the Archibald competition.
But she wasn't afraid to submit her work.
"I knew Cal's time was valuable and I didn't want to waste it," Huelin told AAP.
"I was going to go for the top prize."
The Perth-born artist initially wanted her first Archibald Prize entry to make fun of 19th century Victorian portraits and their depictions of women.
But when Wilson came in wearing her ostentatious and somewhat serial killer-esque doll hat, Huelin's portrait changed.
"I looked up and thought 'it's a crown'," she said.
"Over the course of the sitting it became clear that this was a kind of regalia for Cal."
Wilson hadn't seen the portrait until Thursday's announcement, but unlike past Archibald subjects, she adored the painting.
"I just love the juxtaposition of portraits being a serious, lasting thing and then this, which is just bonkers," Wilson told AAP.
"When she said she was an (Archibald) finalist it felt like we'd got engaged - that's exciting. But this (the Packing Room Prize) is like a surprise wedding."
First awarded in 1991, the Packing Room Prize is open to all entries in the prestigious Archibald portrait prize and is chosen by the gallery staff who receive, unpack and hang the entries.
This year, for the first time, the winner was chosen by a committee of three packing room staffers - Timothy Dale, Monica Rudhar and Alexis Wildman - who each got an equal say in the selection.
Wildman said Wilson's portrait jumped out at the packers as soon as it rolled off the delivery truck.
"It came through, it's bold, it's warm, it's colourful and it brings light to a new, fresh era," she said.
"This is a great, joyful portrait of someone who has brought so much laughter to Australia."
While she has overcome one hurdle, Huelin believes her chances at winning the top award are slim.
The Packing Room Prize has been known as the "kiss of death'' award, because no artist has won it and gone on to take out the Archibald.
This year, the Art Gallery of NSW received almost 1000 entries for its premier award and more than 2000 across the Wynne landscape prize, the Archibald, and the Sulman subject painting prize.
Other finalist works include a haunting painting of Mostafa Azimitabar, a refugee and former detainee at Manus Island; a diptych of Rabbitohs star Latrell Mitchell; and a parody of a five-dollar note featuring Aunty Regina Pilawuk.
Huelin is one of 57 Archibald finalists in a year that, for the first time ever, had more female artists than men.
The winner of the $100,000 Archibald Prize will be announced on May 5.
Australian Associated Press
