The Unseen Wendy Watson by Sarsha Brisbane

This work challenges the conventions of portraiture and draws attention to the very act of looking.

Rather than one straightforward likeness of the sitter Wendy Watson, a housekeeper the artist met when they were both working at the Prince of Wales motel, the seven miniatures reveal only fleeting glimpses of Wendy as she works.

Sarsha describes her as a career housekeeper, who has worked in Brisbane hotels for 30 years. “She is a no-nonsense, hardworking woman, self-deprecating and often funny, who cares greatly for her colleagues.”

The small scale demands that we come up close and peer into the scenes that are painted on mirrors. A game of voyeurism is being played with uncertainty about who is looking at who. The prominent and varied frames add to our heightened awareness that portraiture is an act of validation, and picture making.

As a hotel housekeeper, Wendy Watson is intimately involved in other peoples lives – but she is rarely seen by them.

“I have painted them on mirrors so that the viewer is a part of the image and as such engages directly with Wendy. The vintage frames are a link to the past where portraits were generally of the gentry. Ironically they also reflect a lifetime of cleaning mirrors.”