Congratulations to artist and teacher at Rings Road Art Studio, Effie Mandalos, as it was announced that her portrait “The Wrestler Chris Brown” was shortlisted in this years Doug Moran Portrait Prize. Below is a little piece written by Amelie Scalercio of her own personal impression of Effie’s painting. “The Wrestler seems to evoke an unflinching battle between an interrogative gaze of a single moment and a wistful uncertainty of what has been and what is to come. This radiates from the intensity of a painter studying their subject to draw out a twin connection; a force that at once ties to and wrestles powerfully within the space that exists between. the sense of wandering and wondering reveals itself slowly as if hidden by dark clouds of a past lost, a desire unknown, a strength that beckons us closer to confronting the fragility of being human”.