After our walk yesterday, we had to quickly freshen up (and tend to our wounds!) before heading back to the State Library’s “Portraits of a City” event. Inspired by the current Peter Kingston exhibition, curator Mathilde de Hauteclocque brought together a panel of three artists whose work has often depicted Sydney: Vanessa Berry (of the Mirror Sydney blog and book), Reg Mombassa (of Mambo clothing fame), and Michael Kelly (painter and printmaker). Mathilde led them through an interesting discussion about how an artist thinks about capturing a place, as samples of their work (and Kingston’s) played behind them. Reg was clearly the draw, as his work is by far the most well-known. He was the least reflective about his work though, admitting that his first impressions of Sydney (as a 17yo Kiwi immigrant) was that it was “too hot and dirty.” His artworks invoke the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House simply as handy iconography for “Australia.” The other two artists were much more personal in their approach. Vanessa seemed to consider herself as more of a writer than an artist, but I loved her hand-drawn “maps” of the Sydney of her youth. They had a real DIY zine vibe. (We were especially tickled by the inclusion of Alex Cordobe’s Pizza.) Michael also seemed to feel a responsibility to capture parts of the city before they disappeared, and we got to see some lovely examples from his sketchbooks. After the discussion we headed up to the Library Bar for a well deserved drink!