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Archibald Prize: Lisa Wilkinson portrait by Peter Smeeth wins Packing Room Prize

Garry Maddox

Peter Smeeth's portrait of Today show host Lisa Wilkinson has won the $1500 Packing Room award in this year's Archibald Prize.

The painting of the popular TV journalist, which shows her reclining on a sofa with husband Peter FitzSimons and children Jake, Billie and Louis reflected on a TV screen in the background, was named the winner in packing room boss Steve Peters' final duty before retirement.

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Lisa Wilkinson portrait wins Packing Room Prize

Peter Smeeth's portrait of Today show host Lisa Wilkinson has won the Packing Room Prize in the 2017 Archibald Prize.

A portrait of Peters by Lucy Culliton, called Finished Packing, is among the 43 finalists for the $100,000 prize. 

Wilkinson, who was at the announcement at the Art Gallery of NSW with her wrist in a cast after a fall while on holiday in Italy, was delighted to see Smeeth's portrait for the first time. 

"It's very confronting when you're painted," she said. "I think we all have a different idea in our head of how we look to the outside world and obviously every artist is going to have a different interpretation. But I'm thrilled with it."

Wilkinson said the portrait captured "a rare moment of me relaxing".

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It was a bittersweet award for Smeeth, a three-time Archibald finalist and winner of the Sulman Prize in 2011. He was delivering the eulogy at his best friend's funeral in Yass as gallery director Michael Brand announced the prize.

In an acceptance speech delivered by Brand, Smeeth put the win down 99 per cent to Wilkinson and 1 per cent to the likeness.

"I'd like to acknowledge Lisa's contribution and sincerely thank her for agreeing to sit and for being such a good sport."

Having previously painted FitzSimons for the Archibald, Smeeth has come up with a warm, relaxed portrait of Wilkinson. 

"She's a great subject," he said in a break between the funeral and the wake in Yass. "You can't get anyone better than Lisa. It's almost like cheating."

But given no work has ever won both Packing Room and Archibald prizes, Smeeth rated his chances for the big one as "between 100 to one and Buckley's".

Comedian, artist and author Anh Do is a finalist with a vibrant disembodied portrait of Aboriginal actor Jack Charles - one of his subjects in the latest season of the ABC TV portrait painting show Anh's Brush with Fame.

The popular series has also seen him paint the likes of Ian Thorpe, Megan Gale, Samuel Johnson, Fiona Wood, Tina Arena, Kurt Fearnley and Rosie Batty. His painting of Charles is described as being "oil on linen with unicorn hologram, dead insects found in garden and other mixed media".

Photo gallery
Archibald Prize 2017 finalists

It's Do's second time as an Archibald finalist, having been nominated for a portrait of his father, Tam Do, in 2014.

With a Nicholas Harding portrait of John Bell winning the Archibald in 2001, another two portraits of the Shakespearean actor are finalists this year - by Jordan Richardson and Loribelle Spirovski​. 

Harding is also a finalist again with a portrait of another Archibald winner - John Olsen. 

Two portraits feature noted musicians - the artist known as "what" has painted the Go Betweens' Robert Forster and Jon Campbell's pictures Sunny Boys Peter and Jeremy Oxley face to face.  

While there are no politicians hanging this year, the sports world is represented by Kimberley Leutwyler's​ portrait of footballer Michelle Heyman​. 

Fellow artists are strongly represented with Noel Thurgate​ painting Peter Powditch​, Ashley Frost on Janet Dawson, Mitch Cairns on Agatha Gothe-Snape, Marc Etherington​ on Paul Williams, Sophia Hewson on Richard Bell and Jonathan Dalton on James Drinkwater and Lottie Consalvo​.

Possibly reflecting the difficulty of getting busy subjects to sit for portraits, no fewer than 10 artists have self-portraits up for the prize: Tjungkara Ken, Kate Beynon​, Tsering Hannaford, Natasha Walsh, Jessica Ashton, Madeleine Winch, Robert Malherbe​, David Griggs, Tony Albert and Vincent Namatjira.

The gallery also unveiled the finalists in the Wynne, Sulman and Young Archie prizes, with the winners to be announced next Friday. 

THE ARCHIBALD PRIZE FRONTRUNNERS

In a year when there appears to be no obvious favourite, the leading contenders include ...

* Noel Thurgate's​ Homage to Peter Powditch

​* Anh Do's JC on Jack Charles

* Yvette Coppersmith's Professor Gillian Triggs

* Phil Meatchem's​ Aah Yeah, That Guy on comic actor Francis Greenslade

* Jonathan Dalton's Lottie and James on artists James Drinkwater​ and Lottie Consalvo​

* Mitch Cairns' Agatha Gothe-Snape

* Andrew Lloyd Greensmith's​ The Inner Stillness Of Eileen Kramer

* Vincent Namatjira's​ Self-portrait On Friday

* Jun Chen's Ray Hughes

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