Frank
Nick Offer
Frank [detail] 2025
Portrait of Frank Sultana
Oil paint and ink on canvas
140 x 88 cm
About the Artwork
I saw Frank Sultana nailing his brand of swampy blues at a couple of music festivals on the coast. He had a great self-contained presence and I thought to myself: Contact him. Paint him. He was kind enough to sit for me in my studio in ACT the next time he was performing there.
My intention was to incorporate a symbol of Frank’s playing in a functional rather than decorative way. I felt that using an amplifier as his perch would achieve this. Another intention was to echo the spread of Frank’s fingers in the folds of the blue sheet on the floor–hoping that this would convey a sense of the music emanating from ‘the source’.
About the Artist
Nick Offer lives in Canberra and has a studio at the M16 Artspace. His work focuses on landscape, portraiture and figurative painting, often combining mixed media with traditional painting. In 2025, a large landscape painting was acquired by the ACT Legislative. Recent exhibitions and award shows include Figurativas (2025) at the MEAM Museum in Barcelona, the Doyles Art Award (Landscape), Gold Coast (2024, First Prize), The National Contemporary Art Prize, Canberra (2023, 2024, Highly Commended both years), The Lethbridge Landscape Prize, Brisbane (2025, 2024, Highly Commended 2024), and the Percival Portrait Painting Prize (2024, Finalist).