2026 Judge
Lee Machelak
Lee Machelak is a Melbourne based artist specializing in traditional oil portraiture and still life.
After completing studies at the Florance Academy of Art, Italy, she has spent her career capturing the character of her subjects through a disciplined and considered tonal lens.
Lee has painted several notable portrait commissions for The Royal Children’s Hospital, Monash Medical Centre, Cabrini Hospital, Australian Red Cross Blood Service and Pharmacy Guild of Australia amongst others.
In more informal portraits, Lee is particularly inspired to paint the people around her. Family, friends, and students all make wonderful, relaxed subject matter. Lee works from life, believing that it is the collaborative magic and shared feeling between sitter and artist that helps her capture that spark of personality.
In painting still life, Lee focuses on the dramatic interplay of light and shadow. She enjoys the “theatre” of still life, setting the stage with special pieces she has collected and opulent fabrics. She also enjoys the everyday subject, seeking to show the inherent beauty that may otherwise be overlooked.
Lee is a member of the Twenty Melbourne Painters Society and a Signatory Member and Fellow of the Victorian Artists Society. She is a recipient of the AME Bale Painting Prize 1991, the AME Bale Travelling Scholarship 1993 and the Violet Teague Portrait Prize 1995.
Camberwell Rotary Art Show Awards include:
- Gold Medal 1994
- Major Oil 2000
- Best still Life 2006
- Best Traditional work 2016