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Brush with fame as Chancellor’s portrait hung at UNE

February 28, 2005

oshane_small.jpgAn official portrait of Dr Pat O’Shane, former Chancellor of the University of New England, was unveiled at Booloominbah yesterday.

Dr O’Shane, who saw the finished painting for the first time at the unveiling, said she was delighted with the likeness, an oil on canvas by former Archibald Prize runner-up Matthew Lynn.

The painting now hangs on the ground floor of Booloominbah, which contains the office of the Chancellory, along with portraits of UNE’s previous Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors.

Dr O’Shane said she was “extremely proud to be able to take my place, as it were, among some very distinguished Australians.

“It is an enormous honour to ever be appointed Chancellor of a University, and I was extremely privileged to have had that honour. I treasure my association with this institution.”

Vice-Chancellor Professor Ingrid Moses said the painting “depicts Pat as we love her and is a really important contribution to our art collection”.

She said that while there had been a number of portraits painted of former Vice-Chancellors during the 1990s, the history of the University had yielded only a limited number of Chancellors’ paintings. These were all painted by different artists, whereas many of the paintings of former Vice-Chancellors were painted by the one artist, Judy Cassab.

Other important paintings in the University’s collection include a 1950 oil on canvas of UNE’s first Chancellor, Sir Earle Page, painted by Sir Joshua Smith, an oil on canvas of Dr Robert Madgwick, UNE’s first Vice-Chancellor, painted by Judy Cassab and an acrylic on board of Sir Frank Kitto, a former Chancellor, by Kevin O’Connor.

Guests at the unveiling included Mr Ed Wright, a descendent of former Chancellor P A Wright, current Chancellor John Cassidy, and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Development) Peter Flood.

Artist Matthew Lynn said it had been an honour to paint Dr O’Shane, his second portrait of the magistrate. “I had previously painted Dr O’Shane last year and that was accepted into the Archibald Prize [at the Art Gallery of NSW],” Mr Lynn said. “While that painting was quite sombre, this portrait presents Dr O’Shane as happy and glowing.”

Mr Lynn, 41, is well-known for his portrait paintings, having had many of his works accepted into the Archibald Prize every year since 1997. Two of his portraits have been runners-up in the final prize: a portrait of SBS presenter Jeanne Ryckmans and his 1998 painting of Chinese contemporary artist Guan Wei.

The artist lives in Blackheath and for his current portrait of Dr O’Shane he organised a number of sittings over a period of three months at Dr O’Shane’s Hunters Hill home.

For more information phone Leon Braun on 6773 3771 or Jenny Edmunds on 6773 2144.

Posted by Leon Braun at February 28, 2005 02:11 PM