Melissa Beowulf

Last updated

Melissa Beowulf
Born1957 (age 66–67)
NationalityAustralian
Known forPortraiture
SpouseThorhammer Beowulf (married c. 1985, widowed 2015)
ChildrenThorsten Halley, Bjorn Toren, Thorin, and Beren

Melissa Beowulf (born 1957) is an Australian artist, specialising in portraiture. She grew up in Sydney, Australia and moved to Canberra in the late 1980s, [1] later working between both Woollahra and Canberra.

Contents

Education

Beowulf undertook a masters in Art Practice in Sydney. [2]

Art awards

In 2000, Beowulf was a finalist in the Archibald Prize with a portrait of painter Ken Done. [3]

In 2001, she was selected for the Archibald Prize's Salon des Refusés for her portrait of the National Gallery's Brian Kennedy. [4] [5] [6]

In 2002, she was a finalist in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize for her portrait of Nancy Wake, later acquired by the National Portrait Gallery. [7] Beowulf chose Wake as a subject to help ensure she got more recognition for her service within Australia. [8]

In 2010, she was a finalist in the Portia Geach Memorial Award with a portrait of comedian Adam Spencer. [9] [10] She was also highly commended for that award in 1998, 2000, 2001 and 2003. Her 1998 entry was a portrait of Pru Goward. [11] Her 2003 entry was a self-portrait. [12] [13]

Public collections

In 2006, the National Portrait Gallery of Australia acquired Beowulf's portrait of war veteran Nancy Wake (2001), with funds provided by Leonard Gordon Darling AM CMG. [14] [15] The Gallery also has her portrait of Donald Horne (2000), received through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program 2015. [16]

Exhibitions

Group exhibitions

Personal life

Beowulf and her husband, Thorhammer (Thor) Beowulf had five sons; Thorsten Halley, Bjorn Toren, Thorin, and Beren. Thor passed away from pancreatic cancer on 7 August 2015. [22]

On 12 October that same year, Beowulf's mother-in-law, 81-year-old Katherine Helene Panin, was found dead at the base of some stairs at their shared home in Red Hill. [23] In August 2017, Beowulf and her son Bjorn, faced the ACT Magistrates Court, formally charged with the October 2015 murder of Panin. [24] [25] Both plead not guilty and were remanded in custody. One of Beowulf's other sons, Thorsten, later appeared in the ACT Magistrates Court, and similarly plead not guilty, and was remanded in custody. [26] Their assets may have been frozen, which could have impeded their bail applications. [27]

In September 2017, the National Portrait Gallery stated that Beowulf's portrait of Nancy Wake would not be removed from display, and that nothing would be done while the matter was before the courts. [28]

In early December 2017, the prosecution requested more time for the case, in order to gather financial documents. Beowulf's lawyer, Rachel Bird, noted in her objection that the 15-month investigation had already included a search of the family home for the same information. [29] The trio reappeared at the family violence court on 19 December 2017, and Magistrate Bernadette Boss committed them to stand trial in the ACT Supreme Court on 1 February 2018. [30] For that day, Bjorn, Melissa and Thorsten's cases were included in the court's list. [31]

On 31 October 2018, Beowulf and her sons Bjorn and Thorsten were released on bail in the ACT Supreme Court. [32] Their trial began in the ACT Supreme Court on 19 February 2019. [33] A jury returned the verdict of not guilty for the trio on 12 April 2019. [34]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archibald Prize</span> Australian portraiture prize

The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, the editor of The Bulletin who died in 1919. It is administered by the trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales and awarded for "the best portrait, preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in Art, Letters, Science or Politics, painted by an artist resident in Australia during the twelve months preceding the date fixed by the trustees for sending in the pictures". The Archibald Prize has been awarded annually since 1921 and since July 2015 the prize has been AU$100,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Olsen (Australian artist)</span> Australian artist (1928–2023)

John Henry Olsen AO OBE was an Australian artist and winner of the 2005 Archibald Prize. Olsen's primary subject of work was landscape.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendy Sharpe</span> Australian artist (born 1960)

Wendy Sharpe is an Australian artist who lives and works in Sydney and Paris. She has held over 70 solo exhibitions nationally and internationally, been awarded many national awards and artist residencies for her work, and was an official Australian War Artist to East Timor in 1999–2000.

Keith Looby, is an Australian artist who won the Archibald Prize in 1984 with a portrait of Max Gillies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Hannaford</span> Australian realist artist

Robert Lyall "Alfie" Hannaford, is an Australian realist artist notable for his drawings, paintings, portraits and sculptures. He is a great-great-great-grandson of Susannah Hannaford.

Paul Newton is an Australian artist. He has won the Archibald Prize Packing Room Prize twice: in 1996 with a portrait of radio announcer John Laws CBE; and, again in 2001 with a portrait of characters Roy Slaven and HG Nelson.

Josonia Palaitis is an Australian artist living in Sydney, Australia. She won the 1994 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize with a portrait of her father artist John Mills. In 1995 she won the Archibald Prize People's Choice award with a portrait of Bill Leak.

Marina Finlay was an Australian actress who in 1990 left acting to be an artist.

Fiona Lowry is an Australian painter who airbrushes pale colours to portray landscapes with people in them. The landscapes are beautiful and ambiguous, provoking the dangerous side of wilderness. Lowry also paints portraits and won the 2014 Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales with a portrait of Penelope Seidler. She is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, as well as the state galleries of Australia and in private collections.

Danelle Bergstrom is an Australian visual artist known for landscapes and portraits of significant Australians and International figures.

Tsering Hannaford is an Australian artist. In 2012 Tsering and her father Robert Hannaford were the "first father and daughter to show concurrently in Salon des Refusés, an exhibition of Archibald entries", and in 2015 they were the first father and daughter selected as finalists for the Archibald Prize. Tsering is a great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Susannah Hannaford.

Vincent Fantauzzo, is a Melbourne-based Australian portrait artist known for his award winning portraits of Heath Ledger, Brandon Walters, Matt Moran, Emma Hack, Baz Luhrmann, Asher Keddie and his son Luca. He has won the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize twice, the Archibald Packing Room Prize, and the Archibald People's Choice Award four times.

Yvette Coppersmith is an Australian painter; she specialises in portraiture and still life. In 2018 she won the Archibald Prize with a self-portrait, in the style of George Lambert.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dagmar Evelyn Cyrulla</span> Australian contemporary artist

Dagmar Evelyn Cyrulla is an Australian contemporary artist and Archibald finalist. In both 2022 & 2023 she was named one of Australia's 100 hottest collectable artists. Her work is about relationships, especially those from a woman's perspective. In 2017, her painting, 'I Am' was 'Highly Commended' in the Doug Moran portrait prize. In 2017 her work 'The phone call IV' won the Manning regional gallery's "Naked and Nude" art prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portia Geach</span> Australian artist, feminist (1873–1959)

Portia Swanston Geach was an Australian artist and feminist. She was a founder and a president of the New South Wales Housewives' Association, as well as a president of the Federal Association of Australian Housewives. The Portia Geach Memorial Award, established by a legacy from Geach's sister, is Australia's most significant prize for Australian female portrait artists.

Sally Robinson is an English-born Australian artist. She has had a long career as a portrait artist and designer, painter and printmaker, teacher and lecturer. Her work is represented in private and public collections around Australia.

Virginia Cuppaidge is an Australian contemporary abstract expressionist painter. She lived and worked in New York for almost five decades, before returning to live permanently in Australia. Since 1965, Cuppaidge has held more than thirty-three exhibitions in Australia, USA and Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jo Caddy</span> American-Australian painter and ceramicist

Josephine Caddy was an American-Australian painter and ceramicist, who worked in the media of acrylic, oil, printmaking, drawing, and ceramics. She focused on portraiture in both her paintings and ceramics, including "people pots", vases featuring human faces.

Loribelle Spirovski is a visual artist who was born in Manila, Philippines and lives in Sydney, Australia. She is known for her portrait paintings, which often incorporate elements of surrealism and photorealism. She graduated from the University of New South Wales in 2012 with a Bachelor of Art Education, and has exhibited in Australia, Europe, the UK and the United States. She is married to the Australian classical pianist Simon Tedeschi.

Jude Rae is an Australian artist. She has exhibited, predominantly in Australia and New Zealand, since the 1980s, and is famous for her still life paintings, large scale interiors, and portraits.

References

  1. ↑ "Melissa Beowulf, National Portrait Gallery". www.portrait.gov.au. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
  2. ↑ Parsons, Susan (9 June 2014). "A walk on the Wyld side". Good Food. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
  3. ↑ "Archibald Prize finalists 2000 :: Art Gallery NSW". webarchive.nla.gov.au. Archived from the original on 29 April 2012. Retrieved 29 August 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  4. ↑ "Canberra artists eye the Prize". Canberra Times. 21 March 2004. p. 24.
  5. ↑ Holder, Peter; Casamento, Jo (14 March 2001). "Sydney Confidential". Daily Telegraph. p. 32.
  6. ↑ Sexton, Jennifer (14 March 2001). "A rejection too good to refuse". Australian. p. 7.
  7. ↑ "Moran Prizes - 2002". webarchive.nla.gov.au. Archived from the original on 30 April 2009. Retrieved 29 August 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  8. ↑ "Artist shares a portrait of laughter and dress-ups". The Sydney Morning Herald. 8 August 2011. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
  9. ↑ Streak, Diana (23 September 2010). "Portia Geach awards". p. 9.
  10. ↑ "They said...". Sun Herald. 19 September 2010. p. 30.
  11. ↑ Mapstone, Naomi (5 March 1998). "Pru Takes It On The Chin For The Perfect Picture". Canberra Times. p. 5.
  12. ↑ "Paper and tigers - www.smh.com.au". webarchive.nla.gov.au. Archived from the original on 7 December 2005. Retrieved 29 August 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  13. ↑ Reid, Michael (15 October 2003). "Wendy Sharpe takes out the Portia Geach prize". The Australian. p. B14.
  14. ↑ Communications, c=AU;o=Australian Government;ou=Department of. "Outcome 1 - Output 1.2". webarchive.nla.gov.au. Archived from the original on 5 December 2013. Retrieved 29 August 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ↑ "Nancy Wake - The White Mouse, 2001". National Portrait Gallery collection. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
  16. ↑ "Donald Horne, 2000". National Portrait Gallery collection. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
  17. ↑ Beowulf, Thor. "2014 Sculpture Prizes & Exhibitions" . Retrieved 29 August 2017.
  18. ↑ "Island inspiration That flamboyant Canberra philhellene artist Michael Winters,...". Canberra Times. 23 June 2007.
  19. ↑ "'Unhung' portraits given fresh airing". Canberra Times. 28 May 2005. p. 20.
  20. ↑ "They did not make it, but now they are hung". Canberra Times. 2 July 2002. p. 11.
  21. ↑ Barron, Sonia (21 September 2001). "Leichhart artists stage a swansong". Canberra Times. p. 14.
  22. ↑ Higgins, Neville. "Canberra Bonsai Society - VALE Thorhammer Beowulf - Environmental Artist". www.cbs.org.au. Archived from the original on 29 February 2016. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
  23. ↑ Back, Alexandra (20 February 2019). "'I think they want to kill me': Alleged murder victim spoke of fear". Canberra Times. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  24. ↑ Gorrey, Megan (25 August 2017). "Three charged with murder of 81-year-old Red Hill grandmother". Canberra Times. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
  25. ↑ "Mother and son charged with murder of elderly woman in 2015". ABC News. 25 August 2017. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
  26. ↑ Connery, Georgina (26 August 2017). "Man pleads not guilty to murdering elderly Red Hill grandma". Canberra Times. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
  27. ↑ "Melissa Beowulf, sons charged with murder: friends break silence". NewsComAu. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  28. ↑ "Painting by murder-accused will not be removed from National Portrait Gallery". ABC News. 11 September 2017. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  29. ↑ "Magistrate confused by prosecution's request in murder trial of Archibald Prize finalist". ABC News. 5 December 2017. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
  30. ↑ Gorrey, Megan (19 December 2017). "Artist Melissa Beowulf and two sons to face trial accused of killing grandmother in Red Hill". Canberra Times. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
  31. ↑ Administration, ACT Law Courts and Tribunal Administration;; PositionTitle=Director; SectionName=ACT Supreme Court; Corporate=ACT Law Courts and Tribunal (31 January 2018). "THURSDAY 1 FEBRUARY 2018". www.courts.act.gov.au. Retrieved 6 February 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  32. ↑ Back, Alexandra (31 October 2018). "Mother and sons accused of murdering family matriarch freed on bail". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 5 November 2018.
  33. ↑ Hayne, Jordan; Byrne, Elizabeth (19 February 2019). "Archibald Prize finalist, sons on trial for alleged murder of 81-year-old Katherine Panin". ABC News. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  34. ↑ Hayne, Jordan; Byrne, Elizabeth (13 April 2019). "How Archibald Prize finalist Melissa Beowulf and her sons were charged with murder — and why they were acquitted". ABC news.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.