Camellia Morris Selected as Archibald Prize Finalist for 'Wild Wild Wiggle' Portrait

Camellia has been selected as a Archibald Prize 2024 Finalist for her portrait of Australian entertainer Anthony Field titled, 'Wild Wild Wiggle' at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.

Musician, actor, songwriter and producer Anthony Field is best known as the original Blue Wiggle in the much-loved children’s group The Wiggles. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2010.

‘I asked Anthony to sit for the Archibald as a tribute to his achievements and contribution to children’s entertainment over the last 30 years,’ says Morris, a first-time finalist.

‘We did the sitting at The Wiggles’ headquarters. With our shared love of Elvis Presley, I drew inspiration from Andy Warhol’s classic portrait Elvis, which shows Presley in a gunslinging cowboy pose. My initial idea was for Anthony to use his famous “Wiggle guns” (his fingers) in place of Elvis’s revolver. But unexpectedly, Anthony disappeared into the prop room and returned with a double holster complete with plastic bananas – perfect! It was also fun knowing that Elvis was created in 1963, the year Anthony was born,’ says Morris.

Image:
2024 Archibald Prize Finalist
Camellia Morris
Wild Wild Wiggle
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
183 x 91.5 cm
Copyright Camellia Morris
Photo Copyright Art Gallery of New South Wales

‘The Wiggles’ brightly coloured skivvies remind me of superhero costumes, so I used saturated colours and bold outlines evocative of comic book illustrations. Sweeping brushstrokes of thinned paint for his trousers create movement and energy.’

Camellia is one of 57 Archibald Prize Finalists for 2024 which saw 1005 entries this year. The Archibald Prize is showing at the Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney from 8 June to 8 September before touring regionally across Australia.