this time contended superbly well with a hoarde of media and well-wishers for a good two hours: How does today compare with 1948? Well, I can cope with it much better now than I did then. Then I was just at the beginning of my career and I was on my way to Europe. So all that publicity when I came back, it took me years to be able to look at it. Here I'm at the end of my career, and I'm so pleased Ben won it. It's a terrific painting. Barry Pearce and I gave him the Brett Whiteley scholarship, and I think that's helped him. How do the two paintings of you compare? I'm a different person. I think the one Dobell did of me is the best Dobell. And I think this [Quilty's work] is a great, great painting. ArtWriter also sought Edmund Capon's opinion. You can't go past that picture [the Quilty], but there's a lot of good pictures this year. It's one of the best Archibalds. It's a very good show. Your favourites? Obviously the winning one. I like Jun Chen's portrait, I like Charlie Waterstreet's portrait by Adam Cullen -- I'm alone in that. I like Tim Storrier's and I like Rodney Pople's and I like that one of Gemma Ward, too. So apart from the winning picture I seem to be somewhat out of step with the trustees. How unusual!