Emily O'Grady WIP
Frazer Campbell
- Sitter: Emily O'Grady
- Medium: Oil on Canvas
- Dimensions: 60cm x 110cm
- Representation: This artist represents themselves
About the artwork
This portrait captures a hint of a smile as the sitter, Brisbane writer Emily O’Grady, steadfastly engages the viewer. The yellow colour palette is a reference to Emily’s first novel The Yellow House, but it also bathes the sitter in a golden glow.
The Yellow House won The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award in 2018. Emily O’Grady’s second novel, Feast, was recently shortlisted for the 2024 Stella Prize.
The work deliberately has the appearance of being unfinished, with the grid lines of the composition still visible through the thin layers of paint.
This work in progress nods to the creative process and highlights that both the author and artist are involved in fields where they are constantly making and creating.
Emily O’Grady and Frazer Campbell are friends. “I painted this as Emily developed her third novel, working title: Eleanor Illuminated. For this reason, I depict Emily as a work in progress, the figure emerging, the background still attached to her in places, the apparatus of drawing still visible in the composition.”
About the artist
Frazer Campbell is an emerging Brisbane artist who has a Certificate III and Diploma in Visual Art from Southbank TAFE. He has had a solo exhibition at Avid Reader Bookshop, and was the winner of the Artists aged 20 years or under category for the Queensland Outsider Awards. When not painting, he helps to care for his younger brother who lives with multiple disabilities.
