Edward Humphrey is a 24 year-old Australian artist who was born in Sydney.

After attending the National Arts School, he got a Bachelor of Fine Arts. He
entered in the Archibald Prize with a portrait of Stan Walker for the first time in
2020, and after all his hard work,
he made it as a finalist!

Humphrey achieved the texture

and look of the portrait by using oil
paint, oil stick and enamel on a
large canvas. When looking at the
artwork, you can see that
Humphrey used lots of different
tones to create the shading on the
skin tone. He has also played
around with the colours to make
the shading of his skin not exactly
smooth, but not mess either. He
used mostly warm tones, like red,
beige, and pink to add an effect on
his skin, and used cold colours for
his hair, beard, clothes and
necklace. Humphrey used lots of
different types of lines like straight
lines, wiggly ones, circles, and he
even used many small circles to
create the look of his beard.

Stan Walker is an Australian-born Māori singer-songwriter and actor who first

came to the public eye in 2009 when he won Australian Idol. Edward
Humphrey says that ‘Stan suffered hassle all through his formative years and
his current prognosis with stomach cancer.’ He faced these hardships with
optimism and was prompted to write songs with profound melodies and
lyrics devoted to cataclysmic events and world crises.

Humphrey says: ‘I see parallels between Stan’s passion to extend his musical
talents and use that platform to contribute to the debate around social
behaviour and attitudes in a cultural, environmental and personal context,
and my passion to use an artistic platform to inspire and influence other
artists and the general public to challenge themselves and extend their
boundaries.’

When Humphrey first met Walker, they talked about his challenges and the
values that shaped his portrait. Humphre shot hundreds of pictures of Stan to
capture his natural and true exactness, showing his serious yet sincere
demeanour, charm, and compassion via the use of light, colour, expression,
clothing, and accessories.

Exhibition Summary:
The Archibald prize is one of the most significant and important awards for
portrait painting in Australia. It was started by a man named J.F Archibald, who
was the editor of the magazine “The Bulletin” and passed away in 1919. About
2 years after his death, the first ever Archibald prize was awarded in 1921. The
theme of it was any famous person in Science, Politics, Art or Letters. The
requirements to enter is that the artist must’ve lived in Australia for at least
one year.