A portrait of environmental educator and television presenter Costa Georgiadis has been unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in Canberra on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The host of the ABC’s Gardening Australia program was picked by the public from a shortlist of 25 remarkable Australians to be included in the gallery’s collection.<\/p>\n
Among those Georgiadis beat out for the honour were The Wiggles, TV presenter Tony Armstrong, and actress Miranda Tapsell.<\/p>\n
It is the first time the Australian public has been able to participate in the NPG’s commissioning process.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The portrait features Queensland bottle trees, banksias, kangaroo paws, an olive tree, and a Peron’s tree frog from Georgiadis’s garden pond. (Supplied: National Portrait Gallery)<\/p>\n
The large-scale painting by Victorian-based artist Rob McHaffie depicts the television presenter surrounded by trees, insects and animals.<\/p>\n
Given Georgiadis’s connection to nature, the piece features Queensland bottle trees, banksias and kangaroo paws, an olive tree in a nod to the presenter’s Greek heritage, and a Peron’s tree frog from his own garden pond.<\/p>\n
The NPG said Georgiadis’s enthusiasm, positivity, passion for the natural environment, ability to connect with people of all ages, and his commitment to environmental advocacy were qualities repeatedly noted by those who voted for him.<\/p>\n
“Making art is similar to creating a garden, in that it requires research, planning, creativity and lots of time and patience,” Georgiadis said.<\/p>\n
“I’m thrilled to be given this honour, and am humbled that the public voted for me.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Georgiadis says he knew his portrait was in good hands when he met McHaffie. (ABC News: Darren Reichard)<\/p>\n
Georgiadis said he is still trying to unpack what he was thinking when the gallery first reached out looking to include a portrait of him in the collection.<\/p>\n
“It’s a bit surreal, like, I’m going into the National Portrait Gallery,” he said.<\/p>\n
“That was an incredible reality to get my head around.<\/p>\n
“[But] when I met Rob, the artist, I just knew it was in good hands.”<\/p>\n
McHaffie said as someone who watched Gardening Australia with his dad every Friday night, having Georgiadis in his backyard “sharing lengthy conversations about life” was incredible.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
McHaffie says he hopes viewers feel his piece captures Georgiadis’s joy and spirit. (ABC News: Darren Reichard)<\/p>\n
“I asked Costa a lot of questions about his life, and his loves, and his passions,” the artist said.<\/p>\n
“In personal things he was a complete open book. Very reflective, very philosophical.<\/p>\n
“I hope the painting captures the joy and spirit of a man who truly inspires the whole country to get grubby gardening and rewilding.”<\/p>\n
Gallery director Bree Pickering said the portrait was a joyful depiction of Georgiadis’s story and advocacy.<\/p>\n
“Costa is a beloved Australian who is a leading voice in environmental sustainability,” Ms Pickering said.<\/p>\n
“He has dedicated his life to sharing the joy of gardening with generations of Australians.<\/p>\n
“Rob’s portrait captures Costa’s generosity and celebrates his connection with nature through layers of delicately rendered flora, fauna and landscape.<\/p>\n
“This portrait encourages close looking and invites us to celebrate and deepen our relationship with the natural world.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A portrait of environmental educator and television presenter Costa Georgiadis has been unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[2666,4624,449,458,459,64,63,22435,2667,112061,460,134,66441,2289,2668,22429,55196,33394,22632,30926,2681,112062],"class_list":["post-171858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-act","tag-artist","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bree-pickering","tag-canberra","tag-costa-georgiadis","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-gardening-australia","tag-local-news","tag-local-stories","tag-national-portrait-gallery","tag-npg","tag-painting","tag-portrait","tag-presenter","tag-program","tag-rob-mchaffie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}