The portrait has been completed and entered into Black Swan with the accompanying artist's statement which speaks tentatively towards the underlying subject of the image:
I have known Richard Woldendorp for 30 years and in a way Richard has been ‘sitting’ for
this portrait for all of this time. For the past five years I have been considering how to
culminate and concentrate these thirty years into an image. The medium that I have used,
of different types of petroleum waxes and oils, involves the building up of many
transparent layers which develops a complex inner structure that is deeper than the
surface of superficial two-dimensional representation. The depth and complexity of this
medium provided the means to capture the side of Richard that is rarely seen but is an
ever-present part of who he is. The other side of Richard’s tenacious grip on life is
reflected in this portrait; the subject of the image is more the vulnerability that is at the core
of his character, rather than the actuality of his face.
