...the sounding line: Archibald 2012

This is my second year travelling up the road to TarraWarra Museum of Art to view the Archibald Prize.

The Archibald is a portraiture prize awarded to an artist working in oil, acrylic, mixed media or watercolour, and the 2012 field was very strong.

This year Tim Storrier took the honours with "The histrionic wayfarer (after Bosch)" (see pamphlet left). This piece is worth the trip alone and I enjoyed noting all the items the artist would take on a journey into the mind, including Smudge the dog stting proud high on the wayfarer's backpack.

My favourite is Juan Ford's "Ultrapilgrim" (left). So brilliant that it looks like a photo. I love the trick of the head at first appearing as if it is in the black plastic bag, a menacing thought. A second look and you see the head covered by the white cloth of the pilgrim bowed down with the weight of the journey.

There are many notable works, of course.

Marcus Callum's "Self Portrait" a startling effort particularly for the wonderful waxy skin and striking hands. This man is wickedly talented.

I stood in front of David Fairburn's "Large head JB 1 (with blue ground)" for some time focussing with equal measure on the red line in which I saw a post apocolyptic skull, then at once seeing a Gandhi like figure in the black line. The images then fusing into a disturbing mixture of the two.

The Museum set in a working vineyard is amazing in of itself. If you have $10 and feel like a drive this is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.