Prickasso The Painter

A very serious Brendan Nelson on canvas glares at Prickasso Kerry O'Brien's likeness across the room. The most unusual entry so far comes from Tim Patch, who calls himself Pricasso, after his pants-down, no-brushes-required painting method. To create his nude self-portrait, Patch dipped his penis in paint and applied it to the canvas. "It's not like a running race where there's a clear winner," Patch said at the gallery yesterday after delivering his work. "It's just people's perception of what's good and what's not." Works from Archibald veterans, including Rodney Pople and Paul Jackson, share floor space with the paintings of unknown amateurs. He first entered the prize last year with a painting of the plastic surgeon Dr. Joseph Georghy, but failed to impress the judges with his technique. As Friday's deadline looms for entries in this year's Archibald Prize, Prickasso portraits are piling up in their hundreds on the packing room floor at the Art Gallery of NSW.