A local Bundeena artist is in the running for a $100,000 art prize.

The acclaimed artist Jiawei Shen is one of thirty finalsts for the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize.

Shen originally cam to Australia as a student in 1989 and was granted residency after the Tiananmen Square massacre. With next to no money at the time he supported himself painting portraits of tourists at Sydney's Darling Harbour. Since then, he's gone on to have his works hung in the Archibald eleven times. As well he's painted Denmark's Crown Princess Mary and is a regular on the Bundeena Maianbar Art Trail.

The winner of the award will be announced on March 13th. The finalist portraits will be on exhibit at the NSW State Library from March 12th to May 6th before touring nationally. For more details on the competition go to www.moranprizes.com.au.

Sidney & Billy

Artistic Statement by Jiawei Shen

The subjects of this work are my daughter and our dog. Sidney's other portrait has been seen in 2006 DMNPP finalists exhibition. This one started even earlier than that one but finished quite later, in middle of 2006 after my UK trip. In London's museums I enjoyed many portrait masterpieces, from Holbein to Pre-Raphaelites. From them I got many ideas which helped me to complete this work.

Different to the last interior one, this is in outdoor light without sunshine, also I painted from life in my skylight studio so mixed skylight partly. First time I try after the Pre-Raphaelites to paint every thing in a much detail way.

As the most beloved members of my family, I couldn't allow even tiny unlikeness existing in this portrait. In this painting Sidney may look not so friendly without some sweet smile, but this is she, her real personality. She will smile after she made sure that she likes you. Billy is different. He smiles for every human being at the first second when he meets them, whether they are old friends or robbers. Billy is 8, and Sidney is 17. The Blue-tongue lizard lives in our backyard and hard to be seen but we knew each other.

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