Joel Coleman was driving his car when he decided to enter Australia's most famous art competition - to help shine a spotlight on an unsung childhood mentor.
He was reflecting on a conversation with his old high school teacher David Reidy, who fostered his love of photography, which turned into painting, and had kept in touch for 30 years.
"I had dinner with him one night and we were discussing how teachers are not as well recognised in society as they probably should be," Coleman told AAP.
"Then as I was driving home one night I thought, well, hang on, that's kind of my job ... to promote those themes and those people."
With $100,000 in it for the winner, it isn't the nation's biggest art prize in dollar terms, but no spotlight shines brighter on Australian painting than the Archibald.
"It's kind of the grandaddy," Coleman said.
"I wanted to increase the recognition of teachers through an artwork and that was the way I thought to do it, to paint my old teacher and put it in the most recognised art prize in the country."
Coleman and other hopefuls have begun filling the Art Gallery of NSW's basement with portraits, along with landscape paintings and sculptures for consideration in the adjacent Wynne and Sulman prizes.
Those selected from the more than 2000 anticipated entries will each receive $1000 and a career-changing place in the art gallery's most visited annual exhibition.
Sydney artist Peta Minnici set the packing room abuzz on Monday with a portrait of her childhood neighbour, astronaut and Australian of the Year Katherine Bennell-Pegg.
"She actually grew up down the road from me," she said.
Fresh from a media event on the day she sat, Ms Bennell-Pegg happened to bring her spacesuit.
Minnici didn't know she was painting an Australian of the Year until her submission was well under way.
"I started painting the portrait and then halfway through the night she got selected," she said.
Like Coleman, Minnici saw her painting as an opportunity to reconnect with and tell the world about an old friend.
"She was always really kind and humble ... so I really wanted to capture that side of her."
Entrants have until 4pm on Friday to deliver their works to the gallery, which will announce the finalists on April 30.
