Elena Kats-Cherin

Elena Kats-Chernin is one of Australia’s most loved composers, and her music speaks to an audience of enormous diversity.

As a person, Elena is vivacious and exudes energy and colour.

Much of her music has a melancholy and sadness that is quite beautiful. Elena spoke so openly about this and talked about how it comes from the personal tragedy of her son, who has a mental illness.

Throughout the sittings, she commented on how difficult her son’s illness has been for her. And sometimes she wonders whether that was the price she paid for her talent. I prefer to interpret it as a gift given to help her during this difficult time and also to help others.

The music in the background of the portrait comes from Elena’s handwritten scores. In a world filled with fast-paced technology, it seemed so delightful to me that her musical scores are still handwritten without the aid of technology and then painstakingly copied and orchestrated. Some scores have even come to fruition on paper serviettes while waiting in cafes.

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Jaq Grantford’s practice is driven by a sustained fascination with faces and the ways people reveal themselves – often unconsciously – through presence, expression, and gesture.

Working across painting and sculpture, and within both portraiture and figurative traditions, Jaq approaches each subject with attentive respect, seeking to balance accuracy with emotional truth. Her works are developed over time, allowing character and complexity to emerge gradually. Whether depicting a public figure or an intimate sitter, her portraits and figurative works aim to convey a sense of lived experience rather than surface likeness alone.

Jaq is drawn not only to individuals, but also to the extensions of human identity: the objects, structures, and environments we create that speak quietly about who we are as a society. A building, a discarded fragment, or a marked landscape can hold as much psychological weight as a face.

Jaq is based in Australia and specialises in fine art, portraiture, figurative work, and sculpture. She holds Signature Status with the Portrait Society of America and is an ARC Associate Living Artist. Her work has been exhibited widely and recognised with major awards, including the Darling Portrait Prize (National Portrait Gallery of Australia), the Archibald Prize People’s Choice Award, and the Kennedy Prize.

Her work is held in public and private collections, including the European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM), the National Portrait Gallery of Australia, and the National Gallery of Victoria.