A portrait artist of the future
Claire De Fries and the portrait of her dream cat
As Australia’s national capital, Canberra has a great collection of museums, galleries and important national institutions.
The National Portrait Gallery is a popular one, and it’s not far from our home. I visited recently as a cultural outing for book club (check out our club’s visit to Bill the Bastard).
I was pleased to find many new displays (more about two exhibits soon), including one by young masters of portraiture.
This was the Little Darlings Youth Portrait Prize 2023. The competition was open to primary to secondary students from across the country. There were 190 entries across four age categories, Kindergarten to Year 12, but the summaries about the winning portraits did not specify the artist’s age.
This year’s theme was ‘Me and my place’ and exhibitors could enter a drawing, painting, photograph, print or a combination. Twelve winners were chosen and we had the good fortune to meet one of them.
Claire De Fries, age 6, was there from Sydney with her parents and siblings. Her work, Me and my dream cat, features some of the things she loves—a sunset, a chameleon, a piano and a flower. What a delight to meet her and her family.
Where to next? 
She seems to have a remarkable sense of color and composition for someone that age, and it is always fun to meet a star. 🙂
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Such an unexpected encounter. I asked her mum and dad if it was okay to post her and her picture.
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I remember reading once that Claude Monet had some advice for young artists: “I would advise young artists to paint as they can, as long as they can, without being afraid of painting badly”, and if they paint as well as Claire, kudos to them!
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Thank you for sharing that wise advice. I had not heard it before.
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Excellent picture and that’s a happy scene. I do like tall cats.
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Ah, tall cats. I’d probably pick tigers.
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Chameleons need more love, I think they are wonderful. Well done, Claire! 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Maybe next year Claire will have a chameleon centre-stage.
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And what a delight to see you posting. You do have an awesome eye ..
Sent from my iPhone
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Thanks Sherry. It’s about time I got to posting.
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Welcome back! Claire is a lovely young artist – great cat!
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It’s good to be posting again. It was such a treat to meet Claire and her family.
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How wonderful to encourage a new generation of artists. What an exciting moment to meet a young artist of the future. Thank you for the introduction.
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Apparently the competition is run every year, but this was the first I knew of it.
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I really enjoy portrait galleries, and this one had a fun surprise!
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It was a delightful surprise. I was glad the woman at the information desk told us about it.
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All children are creative and often this gets lost when growing up and a kind of fear sets in. Children are born fearless and are not afraid to let go as shown in this lovely painting.
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You are completely right Gerard. I hope Claire never loses her creativity.
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The kid has more talent than me that’s for sure! Lol. It always amazes me when I see children do amazing artwork, true natural talent on display.
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My skills don’t go far beyond stick figures, but I have very artistic siblings.
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What a wonderful way to encourage an active engagement in the visual arts, Peggy.
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I agree completely. I’ll be on the lookout next year.
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I love her dream cat!
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It looks especially loveable.
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She looks absolutely delighted to be there! Aww.
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Great to see such a confident young girl.
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Yes!
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Thanks for sharing this picture. I saw that white cat .I saw the sweet little girl with her Dad .
Anita
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We felt so fortunate to meet Claire and her family.
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A deserving winner – what a fabulous image, for any age. I love the dream cat, and zoomed right in to find the chameleon. Would not have expected a 6 yr old to know about chameleons.
We didn’t get to the Portrait Gallery this recent visit – too busy drinking coffee 😂 (but I do have a post coming up soon about the Nat Museum)
Alison
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A very deserving winner. I especially like the way Claire shaded the cat and painted the tail.
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What fun, though why does there have to be a “winner”?
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Fair point. There were 12 portraits ‘deemed’ to be winners. No others were on display, so impossible to compare.
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Nice portrait! I hope she keeps on making excellent art. Nice portrait by you too. Missed it completely, so thanks for a great little story and a very opportune photograph!
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Someone from the Portrait Gallery was taking her picture at the same time, so she wasn’t looking at me, which I thought was a nice touch.
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How cool is that picture?
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It sure is.
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Did anyone miss Claire hugging and loving her cat, in the portrait! Nice portrait, a great start to being a famous artist! To bad we did not see a few more follow up winners to the contest and work they submitted.
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Like you I wanted to show more of the winners, but everything was displayed under glass and all my pics had too much reflection.
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Perfectly marvelous to have this children’s art exhibition. Thanks for sharing this with the world. More kid’s art is my happy place.
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I agree about children’s art. Apparently this ‘competition’ has been going for several years and I’ll be sure to check out—and share—next year’s results.
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🧡💛
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Such a great painting.
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Dear Peggy
We love your picture, GREAT 👍👍
All the best
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Thanks so much. Greetings to the Fab Four of Cley.
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Me and my dream cat is brilliant. Thank you 👏
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You are most welcome. Everyone needs a dream cat.
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Yes. A dream cat for everyone.
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