For Capon, mighty defender of the real Archibald Prize, was the subject of the very first Bald Archy win in 1994 and it might have been nice to bid him farewell.

The $7500 prize will go to the best new comic or satirical portrait of an Australian distinguished in art, science, letters, politics, sport or the media and is, as Batey constantly reminds us, the only art prize in the world judged by a sulphur-crested cockatoo called Maude.

In this, its 19th year, there are sweet successes to reflect on. Last year, for instance, staff at the NGA were sending interstate visitors, in town for their Impressionist show, across to the Archys for an extra treat.

“I think that’s really sweet,” he says, “and one in the eye for the art snobs.”

Batey is getting on, so has been reflecting on the future of the award. He’s thinking of dropping in on Louise Doyle, at the National Portrait Gallery, to see if she’d like to have the collection. Not high art, but some of it very fine caricaturing by our leading cartoonists tilting at the recent political faces of Australia with impressions of the late Kerry Packer, Shane Warne, Jeff Kennett, Pauline Hanson and all of our prime ministers.

Maude and Batey have yet to deliberate, and the winner won’t be announced until April 3 in Sydney, but each year a new gaggle of characters emerges.

Alas, in 2012, the front-runners are still Gillard, Abbott and Bob Brown, though Rupert Murdoch is vying with them and there’s one painting in which Melbourne columnist Andrew Bolt is paired with his namesake Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter.

There’s one entry was dying to open. Rosie Pwerle, presumably from the famous Pwerle family of Aboriginal painters, has entered a portrait of Ita Buttrose. “Can this be real?” he asks.The Bald Archy exhibition, Watson Arts Centre, 1 Aspinal Street, Watson, February 10 to March 12.