The Melbourne artist was awarded the $1500 Packing Room Prize on Thursday for her portrait of Calombaris, a judge on the Ten Network's MasterChef. George Calombaris and artist Betina Fauvel-Ogden celebrate Fauvel-Ogden's portrait of the chef being named the winner of the Archibald Prize's Packing Room Prize. Credit:Brook Mitchell The portrait features Calombaris, whose restaurants include the Press Club and Hellenic Republic, standing with his hands on his hips, gazing intently at the viewer. "I've never stood there for one hour without moving in my life," he said. Calombaris was humbled by the selection of the portrait, which is Fauvel-Ogden's first entry in the Archibald Prize.

"Yesterday I'm piping caramelised chocolate mousse on a dessert and here we are standing at this incredible place," he said. "It's just mind blowing." Betina Fauvel-Ogden has won the 2016 Packing Room Prize for her portrait of celebrity chef George Calombaris. Credit:Nick Kreisler He added: "It was just an absolute blessing to stand there and watch this beautiful artist who loves her craft so much produce something like that. And it's just George who's a cook and a chef who's obsessed by his creativity." The Packing Room Prize is judged by the staff who receive the portraits and hang them in the gallery. The head of the packing room, Steve Peters, wields dictatorial control over the tongue-in-cheek prize, which was first awarded in 1991, and is not afraid to voice his opinion on the standard of entries.

"We had 830 entries in the Archibald alone and there are, let's say, some shockers," he said. However, he described Fauvel-Ogden's painting "as a very strong portrait. George Calombaris is looking directly at you. He means business". "As soon as you walk past it and see it, you know it's George," he said. Peters said he had also been impressed by a portrait of jockey Michelle Payne, but when he looked at the painting again "the fingers were all wrong". The finalists for the $100,000 Archibald Prize as well as Sulman and Wynne prizes, were also announced at the Art Gallery of NSW.

The gallery's 11 trustees chose 51 finalists for this year's Archibald Prize exhibition, including Melbourne artist Natasha Bieniek's tiny portrait of Wendy Whiteley in the garden she created on disused land in Lavender Bay. Other finalists include past Archibald Prize winners Guy Maestri and Marcus Wills as well as regular finalists Nicholas Harding and Kate Beynon. Curator Natalie Wilson said there was almost an even split between male and female artists in the Archibald Prize. It's a bit like Noah's Ark, two-by-two," she added. "So we have two lawyers, we have two politicians, two chefs." Mark Horton's portrait of deputy premier and arts minister Troy Grant is perhaps a smart selection given his government is soon to decide whether to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the controversial Sydney Modern building project.

There are also 25 portraits of artists and 11 are self-portraits. Seven artists are finalists in two of the prizes, while Lucy Culliton has a trifecta of paintings on display with works selected in each of the three prizes. Asked who he thought would win the Archibald, Peters said: "I'd be very surprised if George didn't win it." However, in its 25-year history, the winner of the Packing Room Prize has never won the Archibald. "It's a bit like Cronulla winning the cup, isn't it?" Peters said.

The winners of the Archibald, Sulman and Wynne Prizes will be revealed on July 15.