Finger-painting of Australian virtuoso musician wins Archibald People’s Choice

Sitting in the audience hearing yidaki (didgeridoo) virtuoso William Barton perform with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra last October, Manila-born artist Loribelle Spirovski was so moved she began to sob.

She felt compelled to meet Barton, but was too shy, so pianist husband Simon Tedeschi provided the introductions. A month out from the deadline for the Archibald Prize, sitter and subject finally came together for a joyful portrait which won Spirovski the 2025 Archibald Prize People’s Choice award on Thursday.

Unknown to Barton, Spirovski had been suffering a hand injury – a form of repetitive strain aggravated by scoliosis which the artist attributes to long hours spent bent over painting.

“Earlier this year was very rough,” she said. “I genuinely had a moment where I thought I was going to quit being a full-time artist and maybe do a psychology degree because I was getting all these signals like, ‘You know what, maybe, I should stop this and do something more practical.’

Then came a eureka moment – the artist ditched the brush to paint her final composition with fingers and gloves.

Accepting the $5000 prize, Spirovski said she had worried she might not do justice to someone like Barton, who had the “dignity of an ambassador and the modesty of a boy”. “I can never thank you enough for this, Will. This portrait came when I needed it most.”

Spirovski was inspired to throw her paintbrush away while playing the musician’s renowned composition, Birdsong at Dusk, as background music.

“As the music began, my hand set the brush aside, and I dipped my finger into the soft, pliant paint. I turned the volume up, the music guiding me,” she recounted in her artist statement. “Without a brush, painting was almost painless. As the portrait painted itself, I felt alive in a way I hadn’t for a very long time.”

She added: “I was like a mad woman just dancing to his music and feeling it in a visceral way and I thought, ‘Oh, right, this is what it’s all about. It’s not this academic, controlled, prove my worth sort of thing, it’s about feeling everything and holding still long enough to hold the connection’.”

The Sydney artist’s tactile portrait was the clear favourite of 40,842 people who visited the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes 2025 exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW. This is the highest total number of votes received since the $5000 prize was first awarded in 1988.

It’s the fourth time lucky for Spirovski, who had been a finalist in the 2017 Archibald Prize for her portrait of John Bell, in 2018 for Nicholas Hope and in 2019 for Meg and Amos, a portrait of singer, songwriter and musician Megan Washington and her young son. She attributes her dedication to art to the encouragement of teachers at Burwood Girls and Bonnyrigg High School, who generously opened up the materials’ cabinet for a girl whose family was unable to afford paints.

Spirovski intends to complete a landscape series using the hand technique, finding that what it lacks in precision, she gains in immediacy. “Because when you’re angry, it channels anger,” she said. “When you’re tender, it channels tenderness just from subtle gesture in your hands, how tense the hand is. From a technical point of view the blending and mixing of colours is more direct.”

The announcement wraps up the Archibald Prize season for 2025. Four-time Archibald finalist Julie Fragar won this year’s $100,000 Archibald Prize for her phantasmagorical portrait of fellow artist Justene Williams, titled Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene). Fragar was the 13th woman to win since the award’s inception in 1921.

She was named as best among 57 finalists for Australia’s leading award for portraiture by the trustees of the Art Gallery of NSW. Another set of best friends took out the Packing Room Prize, with Abdul Abdullah painting Jason Phu for No mountain high enough.

The Archibald Prize 2025 exhibition is on at the Art Gallery of NSW until August 17. The exhibition then moves to Geelong Gallery from August 30 to November 9.

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