Arabic version: فيونا أوبيرن تفوز بجائزة ليستر لعام 2026

According to ABC News, Melbourne-based artist Fiona O’Byrne has won the $50,000 Richard Lester Prize for Portraiture for Luci, now, an oil-on-linen painting of her daughter. The work depicts her 20-year-old daughter seated on a stool with a neutral expression.

O’Byrne has painted her children for more than a decade. Writing about the portrait, she said sitting together allowed her to see time move and observe how their relationship changed. She described painting her daughter as a way of holding onto her “fierce, generous heart”.

Judges Alan Dodge, John McDonald and Bryony Nainby said they were captivated by the portrait’s softness and tenderness, conveyed through an “unlaboured handling of paint”. They also noted the intimacy between artist and sitter, the apparent ease in the subject’s expression, the captured light, and details including the jacket and nail varnish.

O’Byrne first picked up a paintbrush at 36 and has spent the past 10 years dividing her time between painting and landscape architecture. The Lester Prize is held at WA Museum Boola Bardip in Perth.

Perth-based artist Yasamin Khadembashi won the $10,000 Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize for her two-metre-long reimagined self-portrait, Immoral Warrior, inspired by Iranian folklore. Judges praised its bold use of materials including rhinestones, synthetic eyelash extensions and metal leaf. Sky Parra, Sharon Billinge, Kim Harding and Dapeng Liu were also awarded prizes.

The Lester Prize, which has a total prize pool of $140,000, received more than 1,100 submissions in 2026, its highest number. An exhibition of the 40 finalist works is on display at Perth’s WA Museum Boola Bardip until November 29.