It is one of those once in a lifetime opportunity to get great publicity; “The Danish Royal Couple will visit your exhibition and will sit for an official photograph in front of one of your paintings, are you interested?”. Its the kind of conversation that sends the adrenaline running to every part of your painting extremity.
The idea was to photograph them with a classic piece of Danish designed furniture, matched with a piece of my art that talked loosely to the Australian landscape and vernacular. We tried all my exhibition works, and they did not quite fit the bill. So back to the studio, and luckily I had a work nearing completion. Subsequently it got a green, and yellow wash over an existing paint structure that allowed for lots of texture depth and my trademark clash of two large blocks of colour. The work alluded to a landscape and given the high propensity for it looking cliched, the work looked good.
I hung the work (still wet) and it got the thumbs up from the Royal entourage. Framed with two Fritz Hansen Egg Chairs, the space was set for the official portrait. Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Mary in a long official entourage visited the Gallery(Corporate Culture Showroom and in Melbourne). Officially opening the space as a ‘Danish House’, they were present for over an hour informally viewing the space and my exhibition. Crown Prince Frederik also presented Richard Munao with formal recognition of the outstanding work of promoting Danish trade in Australia.
They then took there place in the egg chairs, Princess Mary moving oh so close in her white outfit to the very wet paint. Shutters, Flash, smiles and then they were off.
Andrew O’Brien
Artist
