I always thought that the portrait had to be of someone notable.  

There are even self-portraits here.

Why stand there hour after hour painting when a photo takes 250 th of a second.

Abby, I like the Michael Caton one also.  The one of John Jarret looks just like him, a real sourpuss.

Can't say I would hang any of them in my house.

I guess the pros go on different things to what the ordinary person looks for.

I go by what I like, not on the brush strokes and the expertise and technical stuff.

Davey

The portrait does take a lot of time and The Packing Room Prize of $1,500 is very small for the time taken... I do love the finish of the flecked with multi-colour appearance , intense lines and the deep shadows. The hair looks so real ..almost as if one could comb it ... there is no way that a photo can achieve the three dimensional appearance you can get fro an oil painting.

One also can say how much time does a model plane take to build ?

Forgot to add the Archibald Prize  first prize is worth $75,000

Davey have you ever tried canvas/portrait painting, for every artist well known their is countless unknown, the pleasure comes from transferring the 'picture' that is in your mind into a portrait. Every man/women to their own.

No the 1st prize is $100.000 I know the bloke who won 1st this year

I cert woodent want dat piccie hangin on my wall - yukkedee

He is not in jail now

If that is what they teach people in jail perhaps they should cut some of the Taxpayer funding there too .... definitely sack the person who is getting paid to teach them

Write a letter of complaint to the Gallery as well as your Premier.

http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/about-us/contact-the-gallery/