Kerrie Lester, Australian artist, Died at 62

  Artists

Kerrie Lester was born on May 31, 1953, and died on April 5, 2016.

She was an Australian artist.

She was a regular finalist in the Archibald Prize for portraiture, although she never won the main prize.

Her parents were John Lester and Dolores Metcalfe at the Crown Street Women’s Hospital in Surry Hills, Sydney in 1953, and studied fine arts at the National Art School and the Alexander Mackie College of Advanced Education between 1971 and 1975.

Kerrie Lester held her first solo exhibition in 1976.

She was shortlisted in the Archibald Prize no less than sixteen times, but never won.

She did win the associated Packing Room Prize in 1998, for her Self-portrait as a bridesmaid—an allusion to the saying “Always a bridesmaid, never the bride” in relation to her missing out on the Archibald so regularly, and she stopped entering the competition in 2012.

Although, the layout of her work at the shortlist exhibitions increased her profile, and the National Portrait Gallery acquired or commissioned her portraits of Margaret Fink, Fred Hollows, James Morrison and Cathy Freeman.

Ms. Lester was also shortlisted in the Portia Geach Memorial Award nine times, and was a regular finalist and exhibitor in the Wynne Prize and Sir John Sulman Prize group exhibitions.

Kerrie was the winner of the Mosman Art Prize for her painting Out on a Limb, in 2011.

During 2014, Lester was diagnosed with leukemia, stopping treatment after two stem cell transplants failed to stop the progression of the disease.

Kerrie Lester passed away at 62 yrs old.