Lucy Culliton Self (bogong moth jumper)

‘My aunt Carina Clarke designed and knitted the bogong moth jumper I am wearing in this self-portrait,’ says Lucy Culliton.

‘Carina was a biologist, so she was my go-to person when I found insects, creatures or plants that I didn’t know or needed to know more about. Carina also painted, gardened and knitted. Her picture jumpers told stories. This bogong moth jumper is the first of her picture jumpers that I plan to paint. I would have loved to have painted Carina wearing it, but she died in 2007.’

Culliton – who lives and works in the Monaro in southern NSW – has been an Archibald finalist six times previously. Three of those works were self-portraits.

‘This year’s Archibald came around way too fast. I hadn’t organised an important person to paint, so after I had painted the moth jumper on a hanger, I thought I could be my subject modelling it. I painted myself in front of the mirror, taking great care to keep the jumper clean of paint,’ she says.

Culliton’s still-life painting of the jumper on a hanger is a finalist in this year’s Sulman Prize.