Julie Fragar Self-portrait with the artist: Julie Fragar, Chuck Close and security

‘It is as simple as a fan, a celebrity and the buffer zone,’ says Julie Fragar of her portrait. ‘This is a chance meeting captured on film and set permanently in paint.’

An admirer of well-known realist painter Chuck Close, who is based in New York, Fragar went to see an exhibition of his work at the Hayward Gallery in London last year and happened to be there the day that he was giving a lecture. She approached him in the gallery and he agreed to sit briefly for her after the lecture. ‘I don’t really remember the sitting,’ she says. ‘I think I was drunk, partially on anxiety and partially in anticipation of the painting which would result.’

‘I enjoyed the savage awkwardness of this moment,’ she says of their initial encounter. ‘Chuck is an obvious subject for me as an artist who thinks about painting in a way I appreciate. He respects the importance of painting enough to deal with it as a series of calculated and concise strategies, being aware of the dangers of relying purely on gut reactions and responses. The security guard, very literally made sure I didn’t get too close to Close. Sheepishly but indignantly, he returned to the wall at Close’s instruction. I like the glinty badge. It shines as much as his chest is puffed.’

Fragar graduated from the Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney University with a Class 1 Bachelor of Visual Arts.