Marilyn Darling

When the subject came up of a portrait of me I’d certainly had enough time to think about it, look at other portraits, but in fact I hadn’t really given any thought to what I really would want. I was always thinking about other portraits.

Anne Zahalka, I’d really admired her work, and it was Andrew who really suggested her strongly. I’d no idea what an enormous amount of equipment she would have to bring with her from Sydney. They drove, she brought a couple of assistants, and they took an enormous amount of time setting up. And then they said, well, “step in for the shot”. But like an hour and a half later, they were still taking photographs, so as a control freak it was fantastic because there were sheets of proofs, absolutely masses. And as always, the best ones are right at the end. And I think that's often true of photography.

I’d wanted it to be really showing the building in some way, because I’d endowed the flowers, as something I’d always wanted to do, because I think museums that have got a large floral arrangement as you walk in just look fantastic. And then there was what’s of course called the orange blob, was something else that we’d given. It was just a great experience. I loved every minute of it.