Darling Portrait Prize 2020 Finalist
This is a portrait of Alan Kelly, one of the original Canberrans. Born in 1932, Kel grew up in The Causeway at the Kingston foreshore, in Canberra’s inner south. I got to know him through my work at a picture framing store in the city. He was a permanent fixture and a genuine jack-of-all-trades. 'Always a way in the bush', he would assure us. Though I have only known him through his ‘September years’, Kel would often talk about his removalist company 'Kel’s Kareful Karriers' and the time a group of kids approached him and his truck with a peculiar interest: 'Mister, you can't spell'.