Megan Washington in ¾ profile, 2016

charcoal on paper
75 x 56 cm
Collection of Nicholas Harding and Lynne Watkins, Sydney

Megan Washington (b. 1986), performer and songwriter, studied music and voice at QUT and Queensland Conservatorium of Music before launching her career in 2007. Washington’s voice reached a wide audience in 2008 when her acoustic cover of Ross Wilson’s ‘Bed of Nails’ was used in the ABC series Bed of Roses. That year she and her band released their debut EP and won Triple J’s Unearthed competition. She won Best Female Artist and Best Breakthrough Artist at the ARIAS in 2010. In 2014, she valiantly gave a TED talk in Sydney about the stuttering that affects her speech but not her singing.  Having achieved multiple platinum sales, she has recently released a new single, ‘Saint Lo’.

Harding contributed a painting inspired by Washington’s song ‘Underground’ to a music therapy fundraising event at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Having seen her perform on the night, he invited her to sit for a portrait in his studio. He made a set of delicate charcoal drawings, and a wild gouache that was shown in The Popular Pet Show at the National Portrait Gallery in 2016-2017.