Between the Wall and the Way Forward
Jane Booty
- Sitter: Dr Jeremy Hayllar BA MSc MD FRACP FRCP FAChAM DTM&H
- Medium: Oil on Canvas
- Dimensions: 100cm x 80cm
- Representation: This artist represents themselves
- Categories: Female artist
About the artwork
Dr Jeremy Hayllar is a prominent addiction medicine specialist and retired Clinical Director of Metro North Health’s Alcohol and Drug Service in Brisbane. For over two decades he shaped addiction medicine in Queensland, leading service reform, expanding hepatitis C treatment and advocating for people too often met with stigma rather than care.
Jane Booty worked alongside him for years, witnessing the simple steadiness with which he meets complexity. On paper and in photographs he appears austere and resilient. In person, Booty says “he is warm, dry-humoured and disarmingly approachable.” In this portrait, Dr Hayllar is pictured riding his bike, something he is well known for in Brisbane and one of his favourite places to be. Behind him is a richly textured brick wall, a building with its own long history, since demolished. The bicycle and the wall speak to both the barriers we face and the determination to move through them.
About the artist
Jane Booty is a Brisbane born artist balancing painting alongside life as a mother, daughter and nurse. Largely self-taught through short courses at Brisbane Institute of Art, her practice is driven by curiosity, moving between landscape, still life and portraiture. A returning Brisbane Portrait Prize finalist, she describes portrait painting as both a privilege and a responsibility.
