Winning the Archibald Prize People’s Choice award is hard enough, but doing it with a painting method you’ve never tried before adds another level of achievement.

Loribelle Spirovski was forced to abandon the paint brush and take matters into her own hands to develop Thursday’s winning portrait of Indigenous composer and didgeridoo player William Barton.

Suffering from thoracic outlet syndrome, causing nerve pain in her extremities, she became inspired to drop the brush and try the simpler method of finger-painting to soothe her strained hands as Barton’s music played in her studio.

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“As soon as I heard his voice come out, artists talk about feeling possessed, feeling taken over by something intangible,” Spirovski said.

“I physically threw the brush away ... it was the most fun I’ve ever had painting.”

A seven-time entrant into the Archibald Prize, Australia’s most prestigious portrait competition, Spirovski’s work topped the People’s Choice vote.

More than 40,000 people voted, the highest ever tally in the 37-year history of the award.

“I physically threw the brush away ... it was the most fun I’ve ever had painting.”

A seven-time entrant into the Archibald Prize, Australia’s most prestigious portrait competition, Spirovski’s work topped the People’s Choice vote.

More than 40,000 people voted, the highest ever tally in the 37-year history of the award.

Her abstract winner comes as a surprise in a category where photorealistic portraits of well-known celebrities often attract more fans.

“It was so heartening for me that the Australian public would go for something a little more challenging if it’s emotionally captivating,” she said.

News of the win came at a busy time for didgeridoo virtuoso Barton, who was finishing a European tour with the Australian Youth Orchestra, but he still found time to share his musical talent at the presentation.

“It’s about that feeling I want to give people each and every day through the power of music,” he told AAP.

Spirovski takes home $5000 for winning the People’s Choice award and says she hopes to be back in the running at next year’s exhibition.

“If I find the right person, the right circumstances are there, and they feel energetic and interesting, absolutely,” she said.

The finalists in the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes will be exhibited at the Art Gallery of NSW until August 17 before touring regional galleries.

The $100,000 Archibald Prize went to four-time finalist Julie Fragar whose portrait of fellow artist Justene Williams depicts the artist floating among the stars above the materials of making art, her daughter looking on.

Abdul Abdullah meanwhile snatched the $3000 Packing Room Prize with a fantastical snapshot of mate Jason Phu atop a loose-tongued horse and surrounded by rainbow-coloured birds.