Luggate artist Stephen Martyn Welch is flanked by Robert Holt, barista, one of the portraits he will be displaying in his ‘‘Everyone Deserves a Portrait’’ Wanaka exhibition. The initiative is from Luggate artist Stephen Martyn Welch, whose ‘‘Everybody Needs a Portrait’’ Wanaka series celebrates ‘‘ordinary people with extraordinary stories’’. Welch, a portrait artist who won the national Adam Portraiture Award in 2012, has already painted many portraits of the ‘‘rich and famous’’. He also hosted his own television art show, where he interviewed well-known New Zealanders while painting their portraits. But Welch’s Wanaka ‘‘Everybody Needs a Portrait’’ series chose those who were ‘‘overlooked by society’’ and not usually asked to be portrait subjects, he said.

Source: Otago Daily Times July 20, 2019 16:30 UTC