Melbourne: An Indian-origin man has organised an exhibition showcasing portraits made by him of 50 well known Australian personalities like cricketing icons Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting.
The two-day long exhibition by Melbourne-based resident Sedunath Prabhakar was launched on Wednesday and opened for public by Parliament Speaker Colin Brooks, Multicultural Minister Robin Scott, Indian Consul General Manika Jain and other Indian community members.
Paintings on 50-metre canvas include personalities of politics, sports to films depicting culture and history of Australia from 17th century to till date.
Prabhakar, a painter-cum musician, said he was inspired by the deep culture and history of Australia and after an in-depth research he picked some famous personalities and other lesser known faces from the history.
"I have put them to life in acrylic through my art work," Prabhakar said. "It took me over 18 months to complete all the paintings and it is an effort to narrate Australian history through art and also to carry Australians down the memory lane to appreciate the contributions of their great fellow men," he said.
Prabhakar, an alumni of Baroda School of Arts, said his favourite portraits among the series includes famous engineer John Monash and the longest serving and former Prime Minister Robert Menzies.
Other personalities included in the exhibition are Eddie Koiki Mabo, Cathy Freeman, Shane Warne, Ricky Ponting, Steve Irwin and Julia Gillard.
Prabhakar has also been invited by the Indian Embassy of Oman to exhibit his new paintings at the Fine Arts Society of Oman in November this year which will cover the rich traditions of the country.
