Matthew Cheyne

Sunshine Coast Art National Prize 2024 - Finalist

_{[Image courtesy of the artist and Mitchell Fine Art Gallery, Brisbane.]}

Artist Statement

The middle kid in the triptych stopped me at my local shops and just said “I’m really hungry. Could you buy me something to eat?” It was 1pm on a Tuesday and they should have been at school. There were no parents. The idea of my kids alone and hungry at the shops having to stop strangers for food was heartbreaking. They wanted sushi so I bought them sushi.  

With their faces still clear in my head when I got home, I hunted around for canvas knowing I only had a small window to catch their likenesses. I only had scraps of my favourite canvas. Not enough for three portraits. I decided to piece them together anyway thinking that maybe it was fitting to try and make something beautiful out of these “scraps” and at the same time capture these kids who seemed like they’d somehow fallen through the cracks.