Kerrie Lester 1953 - 2016
For many years Kerrie Lester was a fixture in the Archibald Prize. She was awarded the Packer's Prize, and named official "runner-up", but never made the winner's circle. Occasionally Lester felt she was getting close, but one year when she told me she had painted her best-ever entry, she didn't even get selected. She was not the only artist to have had this experience, but it was bitterly frustrating. 
Lester recognised that she had enjoyed a better run than most Archibald regulars, with many people getting to know her work through the show. It was also her pathway to the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, which acquired her paintings of Margaret Fink, Fred Hollows, James Morrison and Cathy Freeman.
She made light of her Archibald frustrations in her entry of 1998, Self-portrait as a bridesmaid, in which she portrayed a glamorous version of herself leaning back precariously in a chair, clutching a bouquet. Painted in a vivid red, it was a work that was always meant to be noticed.
Lester was not a portraitist by inclination. She painted many figures and faces, but they were rarely intended to be recognisable people. Much of her work focused on figures in a landscape. The tone was invariably bright and up-tempo, with a bold use of colour. She would stitch around the outlines of people, animals, words and objects with a mariner's needle, bringing an absolute clarity to every part of a composition. The stitches became a trademark of her work.
Lester's paintings are decorative in the best sense, intended to give pleasure but retaining a high degree of pictorial intelligence. She was in the tradition of the Impressionists, who ignored the grand themes and set out to capture the busy pageant of modern living. The people in her pictures always seem to be enjoying themselves, and this undoubtedly reflected the artist's own pleasure in the studio. She was a painter who saw art not as a lofty and noble calling, but as an intrinsic celebration of life.
So long, Kerrie. You'll be missed.