Talking With Painters

If you are an Archibald tragic like me, you might have first noticed Andrew Lloyd Greensmith's work when it was hanging in the Art Gallery of NSW last year in that arresting portrait of 102 year old Eileen Kramer. It was his first ever Archibald entry and he has been selected this year again with his portrait of lecturer and feminist Susan Carland. What you might not know about Greensmith, though, is that he’s also a renowned plastic and reconstructive surgeon and was the leader of one of the teams which worked together to separate Bangladeshi conjoined twins Krishna and Trishna, who were joined at the head, in 2009.  That complex operation was a success and made world headlines. Greensmith still works as a surgeon but is increasingly turning his attention to painting and now spends up to two days a week in his studio. In this interview, we talk about his life, doubts and fears as an artist, but also a lot about the painting process -  colour, glazing, the pitfalls of using photographs, how the knowledge o