“As someone pointed out to me, I paint with my eyes when I meet them,” the Eden resident said.

“I look at people and I mentally start painting them. I analyse people as a painting object.” 

He has now been announced as a finalist for the Shirley Hannan National Portrait Award – a $50,000 non-acquisitive prize for realistic portraiture, the winner of which will be announced on Friday.

Mr O’Gara said it was “very important” to him to be selected as a finalist, one of three from the Bega Valley.

“It’s a significant competition and it’s valued to me as an artist to make a finalist in such a prestigious competition,” he said. 

Titled Weary Warrior his portrait is of Sheldon Wykes, a life member of the Eden Tigers Rugby League Club.

“I’ve known him for 30 years and studied him a few times and thought he’d make a good portrait,” Mr O’Gara said.

“We talked about it a few times when we ran into each other and finally said we better get going.” 

He said Mr Wykes struck him as an interesting person to paint a portrait of because he had an interesting face that showed elements of his life.

“We’re the same age, but I wanted to be able to paint someone of that age that shows the life they’ve lived in their face,” he said. 

“It’s not only just in their face, it’s also in the way they hold themselves, their stance, the angles that person holds themselves in, those also reflect their past.

“He’s known for 24 seasons of rugby league in group 16, which had an impact on his body and which I was trying to portray.” 

Mr O’Gara has been creating portraits for 14 years and recalled when he was living in Sydney he would go to a mall, sit down and sketch people as quickly as he could before they left.

“It was like a poor man’s life drawing class,” he laughed. 

“As painters we are the observers of life, you observe your environment and wherever you are that’s what you paint, whether landscapes or people.” 

The other finalists for the Shirley Hannan Award from the Bega Valley are Tim Moorhead of Mogareeka and Bethany Thurtell of Bermagui. 

The exhibition will launch on Friday, October 26 at 6pm at the Bega Valley Regional Gallery, Bega.