Side By Side
Dylan Jones
Side By Side [detail] 2025
Portrait of Ross Booker and Wayne Talbot
Gouache on paper
110 x 100 cm
About the Artwork
I have known Ross and Wayne for several years. Our friendship has grown over our regular Monday coffee catch ups with a group of local Brisbane/Meanjin artists. It was during one of these mornings that I asked if they would each sit for a portrait. My initial intention was to create two separate works; however, they encouraged me to paint a dual portrait of them as a couple, something I had never done before.
The work took several attempts, combining live sittings with collaged photographs I took of them together. Throughout the process, my aim was to capture not only their individual personalities, but also the deep, intrinsic connection they share. The soft palette and gentle gazes of the sitters reflect the love they have for one another, as well as the warmth and kindness they extend to those around them.
About the Artist
Dylan Jones is a Brisbane/Meanjin artist, whose artworks vary in subject matter and medium, but have a shared interest in colour, composition, and the simplification of form. The imagery Dylan creates has a relationship to the history of art but more so to everyday life. Working from memory and with models in the studio, Dylan’s practice is inspired by a variety of people and places, all rendered with gestural and energetic marks.
Dylan has won and been a finalist in several prizes, with recent achievements including winning the Queensland Figurative Prize (2024), and being a finalist in the Brisbane Portrait Prize (2024, 2025), the Redlands Art Prize (2024), and the Queen’s Wharf Art Prize (2025).