The Brisbane Portrait Prize isn’t just about the faces on display. Within each piece is a story – of both the artist and their subject.
Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM’s story is being told twice this year.
Dr Dinesh Palipana sitting for Brisbane painter Brett Poulsen’s entry for the 2023 Brisbane Portrait Prize. Credit: Brisbane Portrait Prize
The doctor, lawyer, disability advocate and researcher was the first quadriplegic medical intern in Queensland, and the second person to graduate from medical school with quadriplegia in Australia.
Two artists asked the former Queensland Australian of the Year to sit for them for the competition’s fifth instalment. They were Khushi Patel, a second-year dentistry student based on the Gold Coast, and Brett Poulsen, a celebrated CSIRO research scientist and painter, also living with quadriplegia.
Dr Dinesh Palipana (left) and Brett Poulsen.Credit: Brisbane Portrait Prize
Both works have been chosen as finalists for the 2023 Brisbane Portrait Prize.
The ability to draw parallels between their lives motivated Poulsen to approach Palipana to sit for the competition.
“I’m on a committee for a disabled organisation and I live with a disability,” Poulsen said.
“When I was thinking of a subject for this year’s portrait prize and it occurred to me to paint Dinesh, obviously I thought it would be wonderful to do – somebody in a wheelchair painting somebody in a wheelchair.”
The final result conveys a deeper, introspective side of the usually ebullient doctor that most people don’t see.
“Most days I feel happy [and] I’m so grateful for life,” Palipana said of seeing himself from Poulsen’s perspective.
Brett Poulsen’s portrait of Dr Dinesh Palipana is a finalist in this year’s Brisbane Portrait Prize.Credit: Nick Dent
“But behind all that too, particularly after the accident … there is a lot to reflect on.”
Poulsen and Palipana both became quadriplegics at a young age while completing university degrees.
Poulsen, who was studying a science degree at the time, was injured while playing under-19s rugby.
Palipana was halfway through med school when he was in a car accident that left him paralysed below the chest.
“It’s a really unique shared journey,” Palipana said.
If the aim of the Brisbane-based artist’s portrait was to explore Palipana’s inner world, Khushi Patel’s is an invitation to step into the room with him.
At two metres tall, her portrait shows Palipana at the Gold Coast Hospital, where he works as an emergency doctor.
Patel, who only started painting seriously five years ago at the age of 15, painted the doctor through an impressionist lens, using vibrant colours and intricate layering techniques.
“[I would describe it] as very chaotic, but balanced,” Patel said.
Khushi Patel’s two-metre portrait of Dr Dinesh Palipana is on display at Brisbane Powerhouse.Credit: Nick Dent
She chose this style because that’s how she sees Palipana – full of light, colour and hope – and to express their cultural heritages.
“I moved here when I was 10 years old [from Sri Lanka],” Palipana said.
Artist and student Khushi Patel.Credit: Brisbane Portrait Prize
“[Patel] is also a person who is culturally, ethnically diverse … so when we talked about the piece she had in mind, there were a lot of intersections she felt were important [to capture].”
On being the subject of two pieces selected as finalists, Palipana said he felt honoured. Not just for the chance to see himself through the eyes of two talented artists, but because art starts conversations and being painted gives people with disabilities more visibility.
“If things [like the Brisbane Portrait Prize] open up opportunities for others or encourage our community in a different way, I think that’s a job achieved,” Palipana said.
An exhibition of the finalists opens at the Brisbane Powerhouse on Thursday, with 84 portraits – chosen from more than 600 entries – on display until October 29.
The winners will be announced by chief judge Suzanne Cotter on October 3.
Get the inside word on the news, sport, food, people and places Brisbane is talking about. Sign up for our City Talk newsletter here.