The Percivals 2020

Cutler Footway: My name is Cutler Footway. I used to be the art critic Bruce James, a joke these days that I'm a Sunday painter who paints every day. I speak in English, but I think in painting. It's a disability or a superpower, not sure which

I grew up in the sugar town of Ayr, North Queensland in the 50s and 60s, playing fires, creeks, cyclones, freedom, an Australian sepia childhood. I took art at high school and a scholarship to James Cook University in Townsville where I naively believed my arts degree involved art. It didn't. I painted and drew anyway and imagined I was a hippie.

Brisbane and Sydney beckoned a career in journalism followed. For a while, I was almost famous as a writer, not a painter. Painting stayed in the closet for years, not that I did and blessed now to have what they call a late-blooming career.

Now, Jack Betteridge is a Burdekin-born hospitality worker and performer. He's got striking features, very chiselled, a flamboyant manner and a great love of dress-ups. He's the subject of many of my portraits and a source of inspiration. I admire his mix of frivolity and ferocity.

Last Christmas, Jack attended a local festive lights party costumed as an elf, handing out lollies and dispensing wisecracks. On the day he was to return his costume to the hire shop, he sat for me.

When it comes to portraiture, I'm old-school, Jurassic really. One must paint from the living subject not a dead photograph. Video, multimedia and a whole range of other approaches to portrait making have a place, just not at my place.

For better or worse, I'm lovestruck by the Italian Mannerists of the 1500s and the Post-Impressionists of the late 19th century right up to Picasso. In fact, the spirit of Picasso's many paintings of jesters and harlequins underpin my portrait of Jack.

I began with a life drawing in pencil on the canvas. I'd normally paint without underdrawing, but I needed to get the details of Jack's costume accurately. And even so, I deleted the stripes on his stockings, his fairy wings and a pair of sunnies too.

They detracted from the sobriety I thought important for the image and for Jack, he is after proclaiming "Don't F. with me, fellas!" The drawing took two hours, and the painting was completed in several subsequent sessions over a week.

Jack Betteridge: Sitting for this piece of artwork in Cutler's studio was a fabulous experience as it allowed me to truly appreciate myself much more as a person. I greatly appreciate any moment I'm able to dress in costume and my makeup, as this is something I greatly enjoy doing.

Personally, some of my favourite aspects of this portrait include the delicious fruitful colours that are used in the background flower bouquet and bowl of fruit. Also, another is how Cutler is able to portray such a high level of seriousness in my face. But my favourite would definitely have to be how Cutler was able to paint my fingers with such intricateness, delicateness and quality. To me, it's a fantastic piece of workmanship. I really love this portrait.

Cutler Footway: I've got a simple studio set up with a very pared down process. I used three primary colours plus black and white. Apart from cheap brushes and expensive paints, the most essential thing in my studio is the model in front of me, whether it's a person or an object. As an artist, the best piece of advice I've ever been given, I gave to myself: just paint, the rest is puffery.

Last year at Maitland Regional Art Gallery, I have my first exhibition since showing here at Perc Tucker Regional Gallery in 1984. It's quite a gap. Because I returned to painting so belatedly, I wasn't sure I'd ever exhibit again, but it felt like the right time. I'm excited to be holding a solo show at Perc Tucker Regional Gallery in 2022.

Now, I can't single out a favourite portrait from the many impressive entries in this year's Percivals, but I did ask Jack to choose the work of an artist whose style he responded to and might conceivably be painted by rather than me. He was very quick to nominate Christopher R Inwood's Alec the King. Well, a queen deserves a king.