Herb Smith and Pip Smith were selected as the event's 'sitters', in recognition of their contributions to the Wellington community.

"We got a lot of comments about the choices, people really thought they were great representatives of our community and it was a very nice way to acknowledge them," Wellington Arts' Lisa Thomas said.

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While the arts group has run many competitions in recent years, including the annual Arts Festival, portraiture has been one area with limited focus, which Thomas and others were happy to see change.

"People privately do it, when we did the arts trail last year Marilyn Hickey did some that were well received and when we were running this competition we asked a lot of people and they hand't really done any work in portraits previously," Ms Thomas said.

"They were all very chuffed to start with, then they panicked a little bit when we got underway as the doubt crept in, but as it turned out, no one disappointed, the work was absolutely brilliant."

The competition was carried out over four hours, with artists separated into novice and experience categories and winner selected in each for each sitter.

"It was a little bit of a boundary push for some, but they were all very happy to have done it at the end," Ms Thomas said.

David Mason was selected as the winner of the experienced category for his depiction of Herb Smith, while Therese Woldhuis took out the novice category.

Gill Pedrana's likeness of Pip Smith earned her top honours in the experienced category, with Suzie Foran's artwork also earning an accolade.

"We're hoping to introduce a heats system next year, David Mason, who's the president of the arts society in Orange was very eager to take the idea back there, so we thought we could do a heat there, and another in Dubbo and have the final in Wellington," Ms Thomas said.

"It ran very well, the venue was ideal and the event took about four hours, there were some people there who were present all day and sat and watched the art evolve, that was a little surprising, but it was very, very appreciated."

The event, sponsored by Infigen and Essential energy, Wellington Golf Club, Wellington Caves and the Osawano Japanese Garden among others, was a 'huge success' according to Ms Thomas, who thanked all involved for their efforts throughout the four-hour-long process.