Josonia Palaitis

Josonia Palaitis (born 1949)[1] is an Australian artist living in Sydney, Australia. She won the 1994 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize[2] with a portrait of her father artist John Mills. In 1995 she won the Archibald Prize People's Choice award with a portrait of Bill Leak (artist and cartoonist for the Australian Newspaper).[3]

The National Portrait Gallery commissioned her in 2000 to paint its first portrait of an Australian Prime Minister to include their spouse, a portrait of John Howard and his wife Janette.[4] In 2002 she was commissioned to paint the Childers Memorial Portrait which depicts the fifteen young backpackers who died in a hostel fire in Childers, Queensland in 2000.[5]

Her portrait Patrick Dodson, Yawuru Man, (of chairman of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, Pat Dodson), was a finalist in the 1998 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize and is in the collection of the National Library of Australia. Other prominent people she has painted include:

• musician James Morrison (1993 Archibald finalist[6]),
• television presenter Ray Martin (1996 Archibald finalist[7]),
• Cardinal Edward Clancy (1998 Portia Geach Memorial Award finalist),
• journalist Paddy McGuinness (2003 Portia Geach Memorial Award finalist), and
• Justice Michael Kirby (2006 Archibald Prize finalist).[8][9]