We were absolutely delighted with every single entry we received. Thank you to everyone who entered, you really did make it extremely difficult! In the end, National Portrait Gallery judges Sandra Bruce Director, Collection and Exhibitions, Krysia Kitch Manager, Learning Programs, and Maxine Beneba Clarke, Author selected 12 portraits from over 190 entries. A big congratulations to all the finalists!
For those of you that don’t know, Little Darlings is for primary and secondary students, with four separate categories across Kindergarten to Year 12. For the 2023 prize, we asked them to respond to the theme ‘Me and my place’ by painting, drawing, photographing, printing or combining all of these to make their portrait.
The Little Darlings Youth Portrait Prize 2023 is generously supported by Jillian Broadbent AC, Dr Helen Nugent AC, Alan Dodge AM, Hugo Michell, Penny Fowler, Yasmin Allen, Stuart Wood AM KC, Tim Bednall, Nigel Satterley AM & Denise Satterley.
Finalists age 5–7
1 Me and my dream cat, 2022 Claire De Fries. 2 Me and My Place, 2023 Emily Ma. 3 Me and My Memories, 2022 Mia Vucetic.
1 Erin Colours (FINALISTS AGE 8–11), 2022 Felicity V. Corso. This portrait is of my best friend Erin. Erin is calmly holding my dog, posing comfortably, waiting for me to take the perfect photo in the morning sun before she leaves. Spending time with Erin is one of my happy places. Erin reminds me of happiness even in hard situations and positivity is around wherever I go. I admire how Erin finds this way of being so easy. I love Erin’s colourful personality, which at times reminds me of myself. The blobs in the background represent all the colour, excitement and joy filling me up whenever I am with her. 2 Me, alone, 2022 Azlin Gibson. 3 Logan, 2022 Logan Martinuzzo. 4 The Medallist, Self portrait, 2022 Ewan So.
1 Self-Portrait, 2022 Georgia Bretherton. 2 Through the Eyes of my Family, 2022 Ting Jiang. 3 Destination Dissociation, 2022 Perri Lawson.
1 Home, 2022 Malakaii Lewis. 2 Wonder, 2022 Chloe Yongqing Zheng.
