Bibbenluke artist Lucy Culliton has been selected as a finalist in the Archibald Prize for the seventh time.
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This years entry is a self portrait of Lucy wearing a bogong moth jumper that was designed and knitted by her aunt Carina Clark.
"Carina was a biologist, so she was my go-to person when I found insects, creatures or plants that I didn't know or needed to know more about. Carina also painted, gardened and knitted. Her picture jumpers told stories," Lucy said.
"This bogong moth jumper is the first of her picture jumpers that I plan to paint. I would have loved to have painted Carina wearing it, but she died in 2007."
Ms Culliton said this year's Archibald came around way to fast and she hadn't had time to organise an important person to paint.
"I had painted the moth jumper on a hanger and thought I could be my subject modelling it," she said.
Culliton's still-life painting of the jumper on a hanger is a finalist in this year's Sulman Prize.
The 2021 Archibald Prize received 938 entries of which 52 were selected as finalists.
A spokesperson for the Gallery of NSW said this was the first time there was gender parity for artists selected as Archibald finalists with 26 women and 26 men represented..
"It is also the first time there have been more works by women than men in the combined Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes exhibition," they said.
The combined Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes exhibition is on at the Gallery of NSW and runs from Saturday, June 5 through to Sunday, September 5.
