When celebrated comedian, author and painter Anh Do was cleaning out his garage a few years ago, he discovered he had collected 2000 books on art.

"Whenever I'd go into a St Vinnie's or wherever, I'd go to the books and see if I could pick up an old van Gogh book for a buck or two," he said.

"I had 2000 art books but I only had maybe 50 comedy books. And I thought, you know what, there's a little passion here that I'm kind of ignoring."

Four years after heading to his local TAFE to study painting, Do not only has a successful art program on ABC TV, Anh's Brush With Fame, but has now won the $3500 People's Choice Award at the Archibald Prize