Everyone deserves to be seen
Fiona Taylor
- Sitter: Greg Clanahan
- Medium: Artistico Fabriano paper
- Dimensions: 60 x 80 cm
- Representation: The artist represents themselves
About the artist
Brisbane-based artist Fiona Taylor, has been honing her skills in portraiture for the last few years. She reignited her passion for art in the late 1990s when she attended classes in painting and drawing, ultimately leading to a passion for portraiture in charcoal. Her love of people and desire to capture the human expression is evident in her work and choice of subjects. She is studying a Certificate III in Visual Arts through Central Queensland University and hopes to further her studies into a qualification in art therapy where she plans to combine psychology with her love of art. Taylor’s future hopes are to continue her own art practice and work towards establishing an art therapy practice to help others through the joy of creating art. She exhibited in the inaugural Redlands Big Art Show where she sold one of her landscape paintings, Moonlight Shadow. She has completed commissions and sold works to friends, family and art enthusiasts alike. Taylor works in Information Technology as a business analyst.
About the sitter
Fiona Taylor chose Greg Clanahan as her subject. She descirbes Greg as “A colourful, cheerful and engaging individual who has endured and survived many of life’s hardships. He spent almost 20 years on the streets and during this time was homeless. He found and joined The Big Issue magazine which he sells around Brisbane. He is generous, kind, caring and full of joy and despite his life challenges he continues to be the wonderful human we see and interact with in our work-a-day lives. Greg and I had crossed paths many years ago when I was working at the Queensland Police Service and he was selling The Big Issues near the station. We were introduced by a colleague of mine and our friendship began. After 5 years or so I moved on to other projects and we lost touch… In 2017 I started a new job with Department of Child Safety, Youth and Women and on my very first day who would be standing on the corner but Greg! We rekindled our friendship and continued to discover more about each other, share coffee and many laughs. Being the kind soul that he is, Greg generously trusted me to do his portrait for the Brisbane Portrait Prize, for which I am eternally grateful.”
