Then in 2016, encouraged by a friend, she reluctantly entered the prestigious Doug Moran National Portrait Prize and was shocked when it was announced she’d won. The winning portrait of her daughter Scarlett dressed as a colonial girl thrust her into the limelight and she has been creating works which have been catching the attention of art lovers ever since. In the last few weeks alone she has been shortlisted in both the Percival Tucker Portrait prize and the Wyndham Art Prize.

In this podcast episode, she talks about the struggles she faced in becoming an artist, recalls the overwhelming experience of winning the Doug Moran portrait prize and talks about the aftermath of that win, including the decisions she had to make regarding the direction her work was taking.

The interview was recorded in her studio in beautiful Gerringong, on NSW’s south coast.

A video of Seres talking with Maria Stoljar in her studio from the Talking with Painters YouTube channel can be seen below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Khunw7NjiLE

‘Scarlett as colonial girl’, 2016, winner of the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize 2016

‘The rest is silence (Brendan Cowell as Hamlet)’, 2009, oil on linen, 91.5 x 91.5cm

‘Veil “04’ 2018, oil an dmidxid media on board, wooden frame, 39 x 31.5cm

‘The Submissive Self is a Shadowed Self #02’ 2018, oil and mixed media on board, wooden frame, 40x 40cm

‘The danger of a single story’, 2017, Mosman Art Prize finalist