Portraiture has long carried the weight of formal tradition: ornate gilt frames, sitter posed stiffly beside a library shelf, oils layered over months in a dim studio. Australians commissioning portraits today, however, are increasingly pushing against that inheritance. The brief has shifted from "make me look dignified" toward something looser, more atmospheric, more honest. A modern portrait might favour gesture over likeness, atmosphere over anecdote. The contemporary approach treats the subject as a starting point rather than a destination, allowing the artist to bring their own visual vocabulary to the project.
This shift is visible across capital cities. Sydney's inner-west apartments and Brisbane's postwar homes now display portraits that look nothing like the polished acrylics of the 1990s. The change is partly aesthetic, partly economic: collectors and homeowners want pieces that hold their own against a Cassina sofa or a Flos lamp, not pieces that apologetically defer to the furniture. Below is a practical guide to commissioning a portrait that lands in the now rather than the museum case.
Contemporary portraiture is not a single style but a set of choices. The most reliable markers are conceptual rather than technical. The sitter may be fragmented, abstracted, or only suggested. The background may do as much work as the face. Colour may be acid, muted, or unexpected, rather than the warm browns and cream flesh tones that defined academic portraiture for centuries. A piece can be hyperreal and still feel contemporary if the framing, scale, and composition push against inherited conventions.
The table below sets out the most common differences between traditional and contemporary approaches. It is a starting frame, not a rulebook; the best results often sit in the grey zone between the two columns.
| Element | Traditional Portrait | Contemporary Portrait |
|---|---|---|
| Pose | Full-length, seated, three-quarter | Cropped close, oblique, abstracted |
| Palette | Earth tones, deep reds, muted skin | Acid colour, monochrome, unexpected pairings |
| Background | Drapery, library, landscape vista | Flat field, graphic shape, painterly ground |
| Focus | Likeness and status | Mood, gesture, narrative fragment |
| Frame | Ornate gilt, hardwood | Float mount, raw oak, frameless |
Looking at living artists helps to fix the language. Some Australian painters now build faces out of collage, others work in neon-inflected oils, and a growing number are returning to drawing as the finished work itself. If you want to see a recent example of how a contemporary portrait can hold its own in a domestic interior, the Wild Robin project shows how loose brushwork and saturated colour read in a real living room. The point is not to copy the look, but to understand what kind of conversation the painting is having with its viewer.
The medium matters as much as the subject. Oil remains king for traditional commissions, but it is no longer the only path to a portrait that feels current. Encaustic, mixed media, acrylic on aluminium, and works on paper are increasingly common in Australian living rooms because they photograph beautifully, ship easily across state lines, and tolerate the harsh light of a Queenslander verandah or a north-facing Sydney terrace. Each medium carries a different temperature. Oil feels weighty and old. Encaustic feels tactile and slightly archaic-in-a-modern-way. Acrylic feels quick and decisive.
When commissioning, consider how the piece will live. A bedroom portrait in a Melbourne laneway terrace may need to absorb low light without going muddy, which argues for higher chroma or a satin finish. A boardroom portrait in a Perth CBD office needs to read from across a long table, which suggests stronger contrast and a larger scale. A studio that works across multiple media can usually pair you with the right technical match for the room, rather than defaulting to oil on linen because that is what was taught in 1962.
One practical note: ask the artist for a small colour study before committing to the full canvas. A study on paper or board is cheaper to revise, easier to live with for a fortnight, and reveals whether the proposed palette will survive the wall it is destined for. Australian interiors tend to run warm in winter and bright in summer, so a swatch taped to the wall for a week in different light conditions is worth the awkwardness.
The brief is where most contemporary commissions succeed or fail. A vague instruction produces a vague painting. The strongest briefs combine a clear emotional target with a clear visual reference. Rather than asking for "something modern", describe the feeling you want: stillness, defiance, softness, joy, anonymity. Then describe the spatial context: a narrow hallway, a bedroom above a Brunswick cafe, a boardroom above an Adelaide wine bar. The artist needs both to make decisions you cannot make for them.
Useful elements to include in a portrait brief:
Less useful, and sometimes actively unhelpful, are instructions about the sitter's expression or posture. Telling an artist to paint your mother "smiling gently" is the fastest way to end up with a stock portrait. Leave the face and pose to the artist. Your job is to define the room, the mood, and the budget. Their job is to bring the visual intelligence.
Australian commission prices vary widely. A small portrait on paper from an emerging artist may begin around the cost of a mid-range coffee machine. A large-scale, museum-quality commission from an established name runs into the high five figures, and the upper end is uncapped. What matters is alignment between ambition and budget. A tight budget suits a smaller scale, a less labour-intensive medium, or an artist building their commission book. A generous budget suits a longer timeline, more complex layering, and a piece sized for impact.
Two consumer protections are worth knowing about. Under the Australian Consumer Law, services including commissioned artwork must be provided with due care and skill, fit for purpose, and within a reasonable time. If something is significantly wrong with the finished work and the artist will not resolve it, you have recourse through your state consumer affairs body. Separately, the Indigenous Art Code provides a voluntary ethical framework if you are commissioning a First Nations artist; look for the Code member logo or ask directly about provenance and consent.
Another local reality is shipping. A freshly painted oil in a Hobart winter needs time to skin up before it is crated and shipped. Many Australian studios can arrange white-glove freight between Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, and Darwin, but the cost scales with size and distance. Build freight into the budget from the start, rather than discovering halfway through that a 1.5-metre canvas cannot fly economy to Broome.
Once the brief is agreed, agree the milestones. A typical contemporary commission runs: a small study or maquette, a mid-scale colour draft, the full-scale work, a sitter approval or photograph approval, and delivery or installation. Each milestone should have a date and a payment tied to it. Most artists take a deposit, a progress payment, and a balance on delivery. The deposit is usually non-refundable because it covers the artist's reserved studio time; the balance is where the protective clauses live.
If you have not commissioned before, watch for these warning signs:
Communication cadence matters more than communication volume. A short message every fortnight is far better than silence followed by an anxious flurry. If you would like a hand shaping the brief, sourcing the right artist, or stress-testing the budget, the studio's contact page is the fastest route. A short call at the start can save three months of misaligned expectation.
When the finished piece arrives, give it a week on the wall before deciding anything. A contemporary portrait often reads differently in person than it did in the studio; the surface, the scale, the way it catches morning light in a Fitzroy terrace, all change the conversation. If something is genuinely wrong, raise it calmly and in writing, with reference to the brief and the agreed milestones. Most issues resolve at this stage with goodwill on both sides.