Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Local artist Montana Kitching opens up about why she painted work colleague Vicki Siemer for the Portrait of a Senior Territorian Art competition, which she won

Transcript

Local artist Montana Kitching opens up about why she painted work colleague Vicki Siemer for the Portrait of a Senior Territorian Art competition, which she won · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, as we know, Montana Kitching has won this year's
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Portrait of a Senior Territory and Art Award for her
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: oil painting Vicki of Jacana. She's collected seven thousand dollars
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: prize money for her work, which will become part of
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory Government's permanent collection.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: And she joins me on the line right now. Good
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: morning to you, Montana.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: Good morning here you going.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, good, great to have you on the show. Tell
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: us a bit about your art work.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I painted Vicky, our ward clerk at Darwin
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: Private Hospital on Jacana, the Wars that I work on.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: And yeah, I'm pretty I'm still quite in shock that
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: we won.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: How incredible.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: So, Montana, you're a nurse who works at the Darwin
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Private Hospital, but also clearly an artist.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, duel passion.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: I love this. So what made you decide to paint
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: this portrait of Vicki?
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: Well, I I guess because I'm I'm not from Darwin originally.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: I'm from in Melbourne and I don't really know that
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: many Senior Territorians up here. And I was like, oh,
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: I really. It was a couple of days before entries
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: close and I didn't know about this award at all,
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: but a friend was like, oh, you should enter this,
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: and I was like, oh gosh, but who will I paint?
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: And then I was like, you know, which, I just
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: need someone that is like, you know, people giving me
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: all these suggestions for who to paint and and all
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: these you know, these amazing ideas. But I was like,
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: I just want someone that like feels that that role
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: for me up here where I'm like out of home
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: and out of my you know, yeah, my home and
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: around my people. That's sort of like a reliable figure
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: and someone I can count on and someone that's really
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: appreciated and respected, and you know, it's not like the
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: classic person that would be painted for this. And yeah,
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: I was at work one day and I just looked
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: at her and went, oh my god, you I can
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: pay you. You're perfect for it.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: So yeah, oh how beautiful. And was Vicky happy to
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: be painted? Obviously?
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: She was how's she feeling about now she's going to
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: get this additional recognition.
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: I think she was originally really excited, and I think
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: she is really excited. But she just messaged me before
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: and said that she's been stopped by people asking for
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: autographs and photos, and I think she's a bit a
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: bit shocked and doesn't really know what to do with herself.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: So I hope, I hope people are respecting her. Oh.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: I love this because it sounds as though neither of
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: you expected that you were going to win.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: No, not at all, not at all. And there were
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: so many amazing portraits in the Portrait of a Senior
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: Territory in this year that were equally as you know,
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: equally as deserving of surprise. So I think we're both
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: really really shocked and humbled by it.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Now, can you.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Sort of, I guess, paint us a bit of a
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: picture for want of a better words describing what the
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: portrait looks like.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: So it's it's so it's just Vicky in her work uniform.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: It's just a headshot, basically head portrait of her, and
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: she's got her face resting in her hand, and she's
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: sort of gazing off into the distance with a bit
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: of a cheek in her eye, and she's smiling, and
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: it's kind of just how I see Vicky. Like, she's
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: very calm, very warm, she's got really smiley, friendly eyes
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: and just like a really a really sweet, cheeky smile.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, how lovely Montana. You know what was
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: her reaction when you found out that you'd won.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: Well, I called her because we weren't able to attend
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: the ceremony near the opening as it was in Alice Springs,
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: Ron Dawen, and so we were talking all day. You know,
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: we were kind of jokingly keeping checking flights to see
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: if they'd gone down miraculously, and we joked about, you know,
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: jumping on the greyhound bus to go and then yeah,
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: I attended via zoom and called her straight after, and
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: I was like, you won't believe it, And her first
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: reaction was just like we should have gone. But yes,
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: we're both very excited.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Oh how wonderful. And I love that you guys work together.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: You must be really proud though as well, you know
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: the fact that you're not territory in the sense that
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: you didn't grow up here, but working really closely, you know,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: at the hospital, and now you've taken out this really
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: prestigious award.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it feels crazy. I do feel very proud.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Have you been painting for for a long time? Like,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: tell me about your sort of your background when it
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: comes to being an artist.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: Most of My family are artists, so my grandparents and
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: my parents and my siblings and a whole I come
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: from a family of artists, so I've sort of always
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: been making art in a very casual way. So while
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: you know, it's not really my first career, nursing is.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: You know, I'm equally as passionate about nursing. Art has
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: always been something that I've done, but I've never entered
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: an award or anything like that. So most of my
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: art is usually about mental health and and like sexuality
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: and things like that. It's actually quite different to enter
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: a portrait.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: How has your family reacted to your winning.
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: Oh they're very excited. Yeah, Yeah, they're very excited.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: It's wonderful news.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: And yeah, I just think it's a really beautiful story
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: as well, you know the fact that you guys work
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: together and and and it's one and both of you
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: sound very humble about it orland and unexpected. Now, tell
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: me any idea, how are you planning to spend that money?
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: Gosh, I have no idea. Part of me thinks that
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: I should just you know, I couldn't get to Alice
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: because we couldn't afford the flight. The part of me
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: thinks I should we should go to Alice and see
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: the exhibition with a bit of that money, and then
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure, probably just Christmas presents.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Really, just so of you and do you have it like,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: do you have any idea as well how long those
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: works are going to be displayed for or what the
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: situation is as well with the beautiful portrait that you've painted.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: Well, I know that the show is on until February.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: I think it's until a twenty second or the nineteenth,
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: don't quote me, but it's definitely on till February, So
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: they'll all be hanging in the Rolene Arts Center until then.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: And then I believe the NT government acquires it and
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: it goes into their permanent collection.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: So you go, Well, how wonderful Montana.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: It's lovely to speak to you this morning, and I
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: just think it's in incredible stuff. I love the fact
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: that you're a nurse that works at the day and
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: private hospital and that you've painted this beautiful portrait of
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: your work mate. I just think it sounds like such
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: a lovely story.
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Thanks, it's
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: been great to chat.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, lovely stuff.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Good on you, Montana and a big congratulations on the win,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: and yeah, big congratulations. Tell Vicki we can't wait to
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: see this beautiful portrait. And a big congratulations to her
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: on being such a wonderful model.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: I'll definitely pass that on. Good on you.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Thank you,