Air Commodore John Oddie, after Afghanistan, no.1

During his Afghanistan deployment, Quilty had met Air Commodore John Oddie (Ret'd), the Deputy Commander of Australian forces in the Middle East between February and October 2011. After Oddie returned to Australia, Quilty invited him to sit for a portrait in his studio. Oddie's experience of being painted by Quilty often confronted him with the various layers of feelings he had previously held in check, and this allowed him to open up and discuss further his memories and reactions. "Either through a lack of insight or through an unwillingness ... I wasn't always admitting the truth to myself about my life. Ben really took that out and put it on a table in front of me like a three-course dinner and said, well how about that? And you know, I sort of thought well, I'm not going to come to this restaurant again in a hurry!"

Quilty eventually produced three portraits over five months documenting the emotional burden Oddie carried. The portraits reveal a man returning from war and its burden of responsibility, exhausted emotionally and mentally, and his progress towards a more positive view of life and of himself as a survivor.