The responsibilities of the guide includes providing information on the artist and the subject, and some interesting and entertaining anecdotes about the artistic process. 

So you can only imagine the work guides have to put in to be armed with information about every single one of the 57 portraits to make up this year’s Archibald Prize exhibition. 

“To have 57 this year was huge,” Annie said. 

“It is a lot of work.”

The information is gained by interviews with the artist – and the pressure is on, given guides have just 10 days to amass this data between the time that the judges make their decision and the exhibition opens. 

“We used to be the ones that rang the artist and told them they had been selected, which was exciting,” Annie said.

“Now they get a message beforehand.”

The challenge lay in making the artists talk about themselves and their work. 

“A lot of the artists are quite difficult to coax to talk, but as you can imagine, once they get going, they are happy to talk about it all day long,” Annie said. 

“For the guides, we want to know about the inter-relationship between the sitter and the artist – why they chose that person, how often they sat together, little anecdotes… some might take one photo or a photo and a few sketches and they they won’t see them again until it is finished. Some only ever work face-to-face.” 

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Annie said she was “the mug” responsible for then compiling the information to be presented to other guides through floor talks and a recorded podcast. 

The guides then make the information their own. 

“I always say that if you take five different tours you will end up with five different shows, because some come to it from a historical background, some from a philosophical perspective,” Annie said. 

“I will talk about the process quite a lot because I’m an artist.”

During the run of the exhibition, Annie expected to complete between 30-50 tours of the Archibald Prize finalists.

She described this year’s exhibition as “artists examining themselves”, as it included 22 self-portraits, 14 portraits of other artists and 12 were portraits of people from within the art world.

“That can be disappointing for people in a way, because they often expect to see people who are notorious or famous… but in talking about the process, you can find a way to make it interesting.”

Having a guide through the Archibald Prize exhibition made a difference to the way people interacted with the works, Annie said. 

“You see some people go through and they spend the whole time reading the panels [of information about the works and artists] and they don’t really see the works,” she said. 

“Their experience is enriched by having a guide talk about the art.”

Works of people that were famous or particularly recognisable were always popular. Annie expected a portrait of Australian actor Guy Pearce to be a particular favourite with crowds this year. 

“It’s photo realism and it’s got that wow factor, which people want. They want to be able to look at a work and think, I couldn’t do that myself,” she said. 

“[The Archibald Prize] invites controversy, which I believe is a very good thing.” 

Annie said she was drawn to the gallery’s guide program as an escape. 

“It can be quite isolating being an artist, and I find [acting as a guide] very stimulating,” she said. 

“I really enjoy the buzz of the the gallery, there is always something new.”

And, of course, “that is good for the brain”, she laughed. 

After a rigorous training process over 12 months, Annie began taking tours of children and then adults through the ever-changing exhibitions. 

She is particularly looking forward to an upcoming exhibition, featuring the work of Australia’s French impressionist John Russell. 

A close friend of Vincent van Gogh and Auguste Rodin, Russell is something of a “forgotten artist”, Annie said.

“This exhibition is just spectacular and beautifully staged,” she said. 

Annie, an artist and sculptor, splits her time between Sydney and a property at Rydal, where she has her studio. 

Annie currently has an exhibition open at Maunsell Wickes in Paddington, called The Crossing. The composite work focuses on the historic Evans Crossing, overlaying copies of George Evans’ survey maps with paintings of landscape and fauna.  

Coming up in October, the same gallery will host an exhibition of her sculptures, featuring whimsical bird life in bronze and using found objects. 

“I use birds as my storytellers,” Annie said. 

You can find out more about Annie’s art at her website www.artclasseswithannieherron.com.au.