Perth Voice Interactive

“INTERESTING” is how Michael Sutherland has described a portrait of himself, submitted to the prestigious Archibald Prize.

“I don’t think there is much chance of me hanging it in my bedroom, it’s absolutely massive,” he quipped.

“Art is in the eye of the beholder.”

The Mt Lawley Liberal MP did several sittings for urban artist Michael Shime, who created an enormous portrait of the pollie using only cans of spray paint.

Shime took time off from his job as a baggage handler at Perth airport, to finish the 2X1.87m portrait in just one week.

“I was up to 3am most nights and was working like a mad man to meet the submission deadline,” he says.

“I used some chalk to add definition, but apart from that, the rest was was done with spray paints and all kinds of different nozzles.

“One trick is to put the cans of spray paint in the fridge for a while so it comes out slower and is easier to control.”

Shime says his great-grandfather, Peter Lynch, was a speaker in the federal parliament in the 1930s. “That was what sparked my interest in painting Michael,” he says. “Rather than do a cliched picture of him looking formal in the chamber, I wanted to capture him in a relaxed, end of night sort of mood.

“I think it’s my best portrait, and occupies that grey area between urban art and traditional portraiture.”

Shime, 46, is a veteran urban artist and his Perth murals, including the one of children under the Wellington bridge, were done long before they were embraced by local governments and became de rigueur.

“I’ve been at it for years and have definitely worked at my craft and improved,” he says.

Coincidentally, a portrait of Shime was added to the side of the Barlee car park by fellow urban artist Jerome Davenport.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK