November 2, 2023 — 6.30pm
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NSW artist Kate Stevens has won Australia’s premier prize for female portraitists, the 2023 Portia Geach Memorial Award, with a painting of former military lawyer David McBride.
Stevens won the $30,000 prize for The Whistleblower, her portrait of McBride, who is facing trial this month over the alleged leak of documents to the ABC that formed the basis of its “Afghan Files” investigation about potential war crimes by Australian soldiers.
McBride, who faces jail time for his actions, served in Afghanistan with Australia’s special forces and was medically discharged in 2017 with post-traumatic stress disorder.
He is the son of the renowned Sydney obstetrician, Dr William McBride, who raised the alarm on the anti-nausea drug thalidomide in the 1960s and was later struck off the medical register for falsifying research results in a bid to challenge the safety of another drug.
David McBride’s upcoming book The Nature of Honour, to be published by Penguin Random House on November 14, documents his colourful life as a former soldier and reality TV star. As a law student, McBride won a scholarship to Oxford, where then rugby coach (former prime minister) Tony Abbott recommended he take up boxing.
Stevens, who also won the richest annual portrait prize for women in 2011,...
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