Former Moama resident and Shepparton doctor Lucila Zentner is a finalist in the 2025 Archibald Prize for her portrait of artist Wendy Sharpe.
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A former Moama resident has achieved recognition as one of 57 finalists in the prestigious 2025 Archibald Prize.
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A self-taught artist and a doctor specialising in radiology and nuclear medicine, Lucila Zentner earned a place in the competition with a portrait of acclaimed artist Wendy Sharpe.
“It is a bit of a childhood dream, it is one of those things you know about before you know anything about art, which is what happened to me,” Ms Zentner said.
“And I thought that must mean that you are okay at art, if you can get into the Archibald.”
Ms Zentner and her family lived in Moama for two years while she and her husband worked at Shepparton hospital.
“We lived in Moama for about two years, about six years ago and we have kept our place there, returning a couple of times a year,” she said.
“It is absolutely lovely, incredibly peaceful, breathtakingly beautiful.”
The portrait depicts Wendy Sharpe, the 1996 Archibald Prize winner, during her Spellbound exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW where she was an artist-in-residence, working on pieces in public view in an in-situ studio.
“As I watched Wendy fully absorbed and seemingly oblivious to the surrounding onlookers, I was immediately struck by the figure she cut — it had a Vermeer-style quality,” Ms Zentner said.
The small-scale oil painting, measuring 50cm by 40cm, took Ms Zentner three months to complete. It features Wendy Sharpe in profile with distorted “ghoul-like” figures hovering behind her.
Ms Sharpe was thrilled that the portrait bearing her image was in the running for the 2025 Archibald Prize and sent congratulations to Ms Zentner.
“She depicts me not static and not posing like many traditional portraits, but in the act of painting a large-scale mural,” Ms Sharpe said.
Lucila Zentner, a self-taught artist and a doctor specialising in radiology and nuclear medicine, described the achievement as a childhood dream.
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Ms Zentner, who restarted “serious” painting 10 years ago after several decades focusing on her medical practice and raising a family, mainly paints portraits, florals and landscapes.
She admits it has taken her a long time to consider her art practice as a bona fide occupation because, “it is simply too much fun to count as work”; however, she now works part-time in medicine to allow the art practice to thrive.
Winners of the 2025 Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes will be announced on Friday, May 9 at noon.
The exhibition runs at the Art Gallery of NSW from Saturday, May 10 to Sunday, August 17 and will then embark on a regional tour across Victoria and NSW between August 30 and September 13.
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