It’s one thing to have dinner with your husband’s cousin, and another to paint a portrait of him for Australia’s biggest portrait prize. Christie-David Archibald Prize
Yet artist Sarah Satha knew that her relative Shaun Christie-David, restaurateur and founder of Plate It Forward, was the right choice for her Archibald debut.
“When I thought I’m going to throw my hat in the room for this Archibald prize, and the brief was to find somebody who’s well known, Shaun was a perfect choice, and an easy choice,” she says.
“We have a lot of shared values, and I would only ever want to paint someone in a celebratory way who I felt had overlap on our ethics.”
As the founder of her own not-for-profit Inclusive Books for Children, Satha always admired Christie-David’s charitable spirit and ‘endearingly boyish energy’. Christie-David Archibald Prize
“If you spend time with him, it becomes immediately obvious. He’s full of energy and enthusiasm; that’s got a large amount to do with how he’s able to get so much stuff done – a real can-do spirit and a little droplet of innocence in there,” she says about Christie-David.
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But what’s most striking about Satha’s piece, The Angel of Newtown, is the way that it straddles real and imagined realities, much like the subject of the piece does himself. A surreal third hand grasps a childhood self who walks the streets of Colombo, while the adult Christie-David, hands in pockets, gazes wistfully off towards the Newtown sunset.
“I think Sarah has got deep lived experience in understanding the concept of people that walk both lines… the complexities and nuances that Marcus (Shaun’s cousin/Sarah’s husband) and I face,” says Christie-David.
“That’s why I love the painting and why I knew Sarah would be able to do it justice – she understands that world.”
For Christie-David, who has helped countless marginalised Australians find meaningful employment through his restaurants, the piece speaks to a universal truth of living between two worlds.
“I think it really speaks to the ‘could be’ moments… we look at the sunshine and fully embrace life now, but that doesn’t mean that ‘could have been’ moment didn’t happen,” he says.
“The knowledge of that world’s difficulty and how grateful we are to be here, that’s a massive motivator for not only me, but for so many people trying to make a life as impactful as possible. I think that’s why that third hand means a lot. You still hold a piece of that physically and emotionally.”
Composing a Newtown ‘angel’ with artistic grace
Portraiture is an intimate form, and luckily, being family, Satha could skip the familiarisation stage, spending time with Christie-David on his daily beat in Newtown and looking through photos from a recent family trip to Sri Lanka.
‘The Angel of Newtown’ came together in a handful of sessions without intervention from Christie-David, who only saw it once it was finished, though it did make for some interesting family gatherings…Christie-David Archibald Prize
“We were at lunch at Sarah’s house once and she’s just staring at me, then she’s like ‘I’ve got it wrong!’ …there’s been moments like that where I could see the creative mind being sparked in different contexts as well,” Christie-David smiles.
Satha says the composition process involved a collage of deliberate and intuited decisions, including the choice to ‘hack in two big circles’ like halos behind Christie-David’s head.
“It just pulled the whole thing together,” Satha says of the circles. “I photocopied a painting by Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, an artist that I admire, several times – it had started going pink – and suddenly, it’s bringing out the pink from the sunset on his t-shirt and his face.”
“It just really changes it – if you take those pink circles away the whole thing looks really flat.”
Blending Tamil and Christian iconography, The Angel of Newtown gently plays with the notion of charity and the celestial.
“I have copped a fair bit of slack from my friends about the title. They think that I came up with it!” Christie-David laughs. “I mean, I get it. Am I comfortable with it? Probably not.” Christie-David Archibald Prize
Though loathe to call himself an ‘angel’ of any kind, Christie-David can get behind the innocence suggested by the boy in the image, which he sees as a reference to his ‘childish nature’.
“As long as it’s Sarah can take the credit for the name, I’m all right with it,” he confesses.
Differences on title aside, working on the piece has brought Satha and Christie-David closer together.
“It’s just such a dream to share this experience with somebody who is family – I feel connected to Shaun in a whole new way,” Satha reflects.
Christie-David says he now sees Satha as someone with ‘unbelievable’ ability, in both an artistic and empathetic sense.
“For me to know that she understands us is beautiful,” Christie-David reflects.
“To see the level of talent – like if anybody was to have done that and I wasn’t the subject, you could unequivocally go, that’s so detailed.”
When this meticulously composed painting was unveiled in the gallery, their family was lost for words.
“Seeing it installed in the art gallery is overwhelming. I expected it [to be small] – it was humongous,” Christie-David remembers.
“Sarah, Marcus and I – I think we didn’t speak for a little bit after seeing it. It was a lot to take in.”
Christie-David’s amma Shiralee was so struck by the representation of her son that she even sent Satha a heartfelt message of appreciation upon seeing the finished work.
“Shaun’s mum said she spent a lot of time looking at the gaze of the little boy, wondering what the future held for him – I absolutely love that observation,” Satha says.
Though the painting’s final destination hasn’t been decided yet, Christie-David hopes it can find a home somewhere where it can continue to engender reflection on journeys like his.
“I think the picture is bigger than the sitter, so I’d like to see it somewhere where it can be part of a storytelling process in some way, shape or form,” he says. Christie-David Archibald Prize
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