The art of being truthful with Artist Davida Allen

Artist Davida Allen's true feelings about some of the trials of parenthood, bushwalking, and a raging attraction to actor Sam Neill have poured out through her paintbrush

When Davida Allen was in her 30s and stuck at home looking after her four young children, she'd reward herself on a Sunday night by watching the TV series Reilly, Ace of Spies, starring Sam Neill.

Davida is a painter, and around this time she made a series of works featuring Sam Neill as the object of her erotic fantasies, which culminated in the short film Feeling Sexy.

The Australian press went into a frenzy, calling Davida a 'Sex Mad Housewife'.

The reality is that she has rarely behaved the way that the world expected her to, in her art or in her life.

Davida won the Archibald Prize in 1986.

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