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The most Castlemaine entry in this year’s Archibald Prize

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The Nugget
May 08, 2026

★ Painting and music with Ned Middleton ★

Ned Middleton with his portrait of Tim Rogers

The most Castlemaine entry in this year’s Archibald Prize might also be the best one you haven’t seen yet.

Castlemaine artist Ned Middleton entered the prestigious portrait prize with a painting of local music hero Tim Rogers.

“I actually met Tim out in the bush,” says Simon Dubbeld, Ned’s collaborator.

"He was bushwalking and we had just been thinking about who Ned could paint for the Archibald Prize. And then I just found Tim out in the middle of nowhere."

He appeared like an apparition! Talk about fate.

As with all of Ned's paintings, his portrait of Tim contains lots of references.

Ned starts each art project by compiling a file of research.

"There's always a lot of research that goes into it. So for Tim, the painting had a lot of words from songs, but also Tim has a lot of tattoos. Even though they weren't visible, they all got represented on that painting. More research, always research," Simon says.

I asked Ned if he likes doing research.

"Yeah, that's one of the best bits, I would say."

For the past month, Ned has been working on a painting of the German electronic band Kraftwerk.

"Ned likes to includes lots of layers. For the Kraftwerk piece, every one of their albums is represented," Simon says.

There are bikes for Kraftwerk's Tour de France album and train tracks representing the Trans Europe Express album.

Ned also brought in other electronic artists from Germany, like Giorgio Moroder. Giorgio and Kraftwerk were pioneering figures in electronic music and based in Germany in the 1970s. Giorgio produced songs for heaps of artists, including Daft Punk and Donna Summer, both of whom appear in Ned's Kraftwerk painting.

Ned points out a red balloon with the number 99 on it for the German protest song, 99 Luftballons and a reference to the song, Cheri, Cheri lady.

"It's from a German band that I like called Modern Talking."

Ned with his Krafwerk and Sabrina Carpenter paintings

Exploring Ned's paintings with him is the best music lesson you can have.

"Ned is the resident music professor," Simon says.

His paintings always start with music and of course, the research.

Ned and Simon contemplating next year's Archibald Prize.

"We'll be doing that again next year," Simon says.

"So, if in your travels you come across somebody that you think is Archibald worthy, shoot us a message."

And if anybody else out there is thinking about giving painting a go, or even entering the Archibald Prize, Ned has some advice:

"Just take it easy and do your own thing."

Very good advice and broadly applicable to most things in life!

Ned paints with artist Tobias Richardson at his studio at Lot 19 every week.

"I met Tobes at Windarring. And then somehow, we just had a good chemistry," Ned says.

He also works at the Taproom and does two radio shows at MainFM. He does movie reviews on the Able Radio show and holds down his own show, Songs in the Key of Glee.

Every Saturday morning, Ned takes listeners on a joyous investigation of Glee’s musical landscape.

He has done 95 episodes and with just four more to go on Glee, Ned’s is thinking about the next thing.

"Ned's got a book of future projects," Simon says.

On radio, he's keen to explore several movie franchises, possibly starting with High School Musical. 

The next painting?

“YMCA,” Ned says.

The Village People.

“Oh! Okay. Very good,” says Simon.

And off they go again.

  • Check out Ned’s website to see his paintings and learn more about his work

  • Tune in to Songs in the Key of Glee on Saturday mornings from 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM on MainFM

  • Follow Ned and Simon on socials to hear about future exhibitions, radio events and adventures

❀ Echoes in Time and Space ❀

This weekend, local artist Michael Graeve opens a new exhibition at Lot 19 with long-time collaborator Christoph Dahlhausen.

The show is called Echoes in Time and Space, which sounds a bit cosmic because it is. 

The pair have been collaborating for exactly 20 years, developing what they describe as a shared visual language through “object-speak” between Australia and Germany.

They work with light, colour, aluminium, canvas, reflection, rhythm and the strange things that happen when you move your body through a gallery space.

Foil and aluminium bounce light around the room while paintings shift depending on where you stand and how long you look at them.

The exhibition plays with perception — what your eye thinks it saw and what changes when you move.

The show's opening celebration is happening Sat, 9 May, 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM at the Lot 19 gallery. Join Michael for an artist talk on Sat, 16 May at 3:00 PM.

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