Josonia Palaitis

Who is Josonia Palaitis?

Josonia Palaitis is an Australian artist living in Sydney, Australia. She won the 1994 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize with a portrait of her father artist John Mills. In 1995 she won the Archibald Prize People's Choice award with a portrait of artist and cartoonist for the Australian Newspaper Bill Leak. The National Portrait Gallery commissioned her in 2000 to paint its inaugural double portrait of Australian Prime Minister John Howard and his wife Janette Howard. In 2002 she was commissioned to paint the Childers Memorial Portrait which depicts the fifteen young backpapckers who died in a hostel fire in Childers, Queensland in 2000.

Her portrait of Chairman of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, Patrick Dodson Yawuru Man, is in the collection of the National Library of Australia. Other prominent people she has painted include Justice Michael Kirby, musician James Morrison, journalist Paddy McGuinness, television presenter Ray Martin, Cardinal Edward Clancy, and author Robert Kiyosaki. Her painting of Justice Kirby was a finalist for the 2006 Archibald Prize.