Artist Peter Smeeth badgered TV personality Lisa Wilkinson for six months before she found the time to sit for a portrait which has now won the Packing Room Prize at the Archibald exhibition.
"I have such a full-on life and my schedule is a little crazy, so it took a bit of juggling to organise," Wilkinson told AAP on Thursday after head packer Steve Peters announced his favourite of 2017's exhibition entries.
Peters is bidding farewell to the Art Gallery of NSW after 35 years as the top packer.
"It's been absolutely wonderful but it's now time for me to retire and tell my mates some home truths about their golf game - like I told some artists some home truths about their artworks," he said at the gallery.
Wilkinson, who was nursing a broken arm at Thursday's event, did three separate sittings to allow Smeeth to accurately capture her in a "relaxed" position.
"At one point during the sitting I fell asleep, so I'm thrilled Pete didn't capture me asleep because that kind of captures me at two o'clock in the afternoon," she said.
Smeeth has entered the Archibald Prize 34 times, been a finalist three times and won the Sulman prize in 2011.
The artist wasn't at the gallery as the Packing Room Prize was announced because he was delivering a eulogy in Yass, in regional NSW, for an old school friend of 57 years.
But in a statement read out by Art Gallery of NSW director Michael Brand, Smeeth described winning the packing prize as "the kiss of death".
"No winner of this prize has gone on to win the Archibald and this - along with the fact that no reclining figure has ever won - is an early tip for punters; put your money on others in the field."
Finalists for the 96th Archibald - the longest-running art prize in Australia - include a portrait of Aboriginal actor Jack Charles by Anh Do and a painting of the outgoing packer Peters by Lucy Culliton.
