Brisbane-based artist Gus Eagleton is used to working with blank canvases that stretch hundreds of metres wide and up to six storeys high.

But on Friday, a painting about one-metre high earned the muralist $50,000 and one of the city’s top art accolades.

“It was unbelievable,” Eagleton said after his portrait of fellow street artist Fintan Magee was awarded this year’s Brisbane Portrait Prize.

Brisbane-based artist Gus Eagleton with his winning piece, “In the Studio with Fintan Magee”. Credit: Brisbane Portrait Prize

“I knew I had a strong piece … but with the prize, you never know who’s going to win.”

Eagleton met Magee in 2010, about a year after moving from Coffs Harbour to Brisbane to study fine art at the Queensland College of Art and Design.

“Fintan is kind of one generatio

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