Award-winning artist and two-time Archibald Prize finalist Zoe Young has painted a portrait of Sir Donald Bradman as a boy as a silent auction prize.

Zoe has exhibited nationally and internationally and recently hosted a sell-out exhibition at Piermarq Gallery in Paddington.

She is due to exhibit in London in February next year.

Zoe, like Don Bradman, is an alumni of Bowral Public School.

Growing up in the Highlands and attending Bowral Public School, Zoe even met ‘The Don’ himself when he visited her parents hotel, The Bowral Motel and Grill, now Biota.

Zoe said she was thrilled to have the opportunity to paint the portrait of Donald Bradman as a young boy, and support her old school.

“Having attended Bowral Primary as I child I always wondered while looking at the bell beside the old school building what Bradman did and what times were like in ‘the olden days’,” she said.

"I was quintessentially doing a portrait of Bradman as a young boy. The feeling I wanted to capture was a Bowral childhood – it’s about spring time. He’s sitting on the verandah, it’s about the time and space that children have in Bowral of not having to grow up so much.

“While I was painting it I was thinking, do city kids have time to reflect like that? I also thought about Don Bradman as a gentleman, cricket is a gentleman’s game, and Bowral is a gentleman’s town in many ways,”

Bowral Public School principal Wendy Buckley said the school was grateful to have Zoe’s support.

“We are incredibly proud of alumni like Zoe Young who has achieved such great things in the art world,” she said. 

“To have an artist of Zoe’s acclaim paint a portrait of another of our outstanding alumni and to help us raise funds for the school is, quite frankly, amazing.”

Zoe’s painting is titled ‘Young Bradman’ and was inspired by archival photographs of Don Bradman as a young boy provided by the Bradman Foundation.

Rina Hore from the Bradman Foundation said they were glad to be able to help the Highlands school.

“When the opportunity arose to help support our great local school which has such strong connections to both the community and its history together with Don Bradman himself, we were delighted to be able to help out. We can’t wait to see the framed work on the night.”

The artwork will be available for viewing and auction bids through an online auction site, https://www.32auctions.com/backtobowral with the final auction culminating at the Back to Bowral ball on September 9.

The work will start at a reserve of $5000.