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In a year Brisbane Portrait Prize organisers felt was dominated by a theme of belonging, a family-oriented self-portrait has taken top prize.
Renowned Brisbane-based artist Pat Hoffie’s oil painting, titled Family Birthday (QLD), depicted her father’s 101st birthday at her parents’ Queensland home.
“The fact that they still live independently together has far more to do with how they work as a team than any mysterious gene pool … people at that age are fragile,” Hoffie said.
In the piece, Hoffie sits with her father and mother, aged 101 and 98 respectively, in front of a celebratory spread of food.
Each member of the party dons a themed paper hat Hoffie made by hand.
The chief judge of this year’s Prize, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery director Jonathon McBurnie, said Hoffie’s piece showed “great tenderness”.
“The colour is dialled up several notches to evoke a sense of verdance and humidity and
reflect Queensland’s bright natural light, ultimately giving great vibrancy to an intimate
moment of family celebration,” McBurnie said.
Brisbane Portrait Prize chair Anna Reynolds said many of the 2026 finalists were thematically linked.
“One of the main themes is home and belonging … there are a lot of really beautiful artworks that talk about family, home, friends, in quite a gentle, and tender way,” Reynolds said.
“You see that with everything from people painting their grandchildren to Pat Hoffie painting her parents who are 101.”
Reynolds said other themes included a “celebration of quiet achievers” and authenticity.
Among the finalists displayed in the State Library of Queensland exhibition, two members of the same family sit on the one wall – Conor Knight and his father William.
While long-time Brisbane local Knight chose to highlight his fathers’ role shaping his own art, he was also captured by fellow Brisbane artist Martina Clarke, his partner.
“Two years ago, we met here [at the Brisbane Portrait Prize],” Knight said.
“We were having a look at, probably, my painting that was in the show, and then afterwards a big group of artists continued going out and celebrating.”
Knight said he was flattered to have sat for Clarke’s entry, although the pair often used one another as their subjects.
“I think, most artists would say that having another artist be your suitor is usually quite a positive and good experience,” he said.
In his own work, titled Ruddy Man, Knight said he had several motivating factors.
“I was painting this portrait a lot for myself really – he’ll be 80 next year and I just wanted to have all the funny details of the room, like the power points,” he said.
He said his father had applied to art school as a young man, and fed Knight’s interest in art from a young age.
This year’s finalists will remain on display at the State Library for the next seven weeks. From November 8, pieces that just missed the finalist cut will be displayed at the Powerhouse.
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