Danelle Bergstrom The portrait and the painter (John Firth-Smith)

‘This is a painting about my experience of the process of painting a portrait,’ says Danelle Bergstrom. ‘Portraiture is unlike other types of painting because of the involvement of the other person. As we share a studio, John is not just a subject of mine but also a friend. I have created a number of images of him over the years and this is just one of a series of portraits. Our familiarity with each other means that I am continually and acutely aware of his moods and expressions on a regular basis.

‘I found that painting a head of this scale allows me to explore the contours and forms of a face in a similar way to a landscape. The scale of the head study is confronting and reveals the scrutiny the subject undergoes. It is sketchy and linear, compared with the sleeping person in the background, exhausted by the tedious task of “sitting” for a number of sessions. It is impossible to hold any expression for a great length of time, as the body relaxes. I’m also interested in the spatial relationships that are created when you are painting a portrait, which is why I have used the overlapping images.’

Bergstrom was born in Sydney in 1957. She studied at the Julian Ashton School and then completed a Bachelor of Art Education at the Alexander Mackie College.