ABC TV’s Portrait Artist of the Year is a reality competition series where artists of all levels compete to paint prominent Australians. Given artists have only four hours to craft their portraits, it’s a race against the clock. And a tough ask. So to win is something special.
Us Northern Sydney folk are swelling with pride as the winner of season 2 of the show was Glenaeon Rudolf Steiner School student and Northern Beaches resident Jasmine Lancaster Merton.
At only 17 years old, Jasmine was able to pass through the rounds with portraits of Casey Donovan, Marcia Hines, and INXS’s Kirk Pengilly and was finally commissioned to create a portrait of Justine Clarke for the National Portrait Gallery.
Jasmine feels the skill set of painting people is unique. “I love being able to show my interpretation of people through art,” she told Sydney Observer.
“It’s so beautiful to, instead of showing someone a mirror, show them how they feel through your eyes. I feel like people really love to see how they’re interpreted, and they often really connect with portraits when they see or don’t see the subject in the artist’s interpretation.”
“The actual practice of analysing everything about a person’s face to recreate it also really fascinates me, like everybody is so completely unique and I love exploring that in portraiture.”
Despite her age, this practice is something Jasmine has been working with and honing for years. She says she can’t really remember her initial encounter with art as a whole rather, “I just know it’s always been there and it’s always been my biggest passion”.
“My first encounter with painting, or my first real interest in it, was in year 10 with my first submission for the Young Archies in acrylic paint.
I discovered then that I didn’t love working with them and kind of abandoned painting until I discovered oil paints when I painted my second submission, a self-portrait which won the 16-18 years category from the Young Archies 2025. Oil paint is now one of my favourite materials to work with.”
Jasmine has a clear future in art ahead of her. And what does that future look like for her art?
“I think my style is still definitely developing. I’ve never really had a pure distinct style; I love to dip into different mediums and styles all the time, so it’s hard to pin a specific style and call it mine.”
Jasmine goes on to say her style has been changing and developing her whole life, “from strictly working in illustration, to alcohol markers, to graphite, to paint, and now I mostly work with wax pencils.”
“I like to explore different levels of realism and illustration in my work as well. Developing my individual techniques and styles with portraiture specifically is an ongoing journey, but it’s one I absolutely love exploring.”
All images courtesy of ABC TV Portrait Artist of the Year Season 2
