"I realised when very young that it was possible to be an artist just like in the museums and art books. My work has always been concerned with the human figure subject; issues of technique, style and theory have always been subordinate to the search for certain qualities of feeling in an image. Also, I always seem to need to know more about the figure, so pretty much every week since art school I've attended life drawing classes. I never tire of drawing and studying the figure.

"This includes portraiture - everything from informal studies to commissioned major works.

"I've also spent a lot of time studying the tradition, that brokenly I've inherited, of Western figurative painting. My work is often concerned, as in this portrait, with negotiations between that tradition and our contemporary world.

"My portrait is of the Melbourne artist Andrew Browne and his artistic ally Ross Waterman viewing the night sky. Andrew and I were on a darkening street corner one wintery evening talking about landscape, Romanticism, painting and photography; also, generally how he viewed his work, what he thought about and in particular what he looked at. The conversation left me with many thoughts and ideas and I raced back to my studio to make a sketch that eventually, after much development, became the portrait. The picture is about a number of things - a good likeness and an attempt to capture something of the feeling of Andrew. It's a conjunction of particular individuals, nature, art and technology; also, contrasting elements such as light and dark, nature and man-made, stillness and activity.

"I wanted very much to suggest the contemplative aspect in Andrew and the absorption of both in the act of viewing and recording."