Swinny’s long been home to talented artists

The picture on the left, which hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, is “Disillusion self portrait” by Mary MacQueen from the class of 1927. Yes, that’s right - 1927! 

Mary was a student at one of Swinny’s foundation schools, Swinburne Technical College. Her art teacher at the school was William Dargie, who ended up winning the Archibald Prize a record eight times. The painting of the soldier is one of Dargie’s Archibald Prize winning portraits. It hangs in the War Memorial in Canberra.

The current school council president, Oriel Flewell-Smith, discovered both these paintings on a trip to Canberra earlier this year.