Jones beat out 56 other finalists with her portrait of Australian author and conservationist Tim Winton, taking home a $100,000 winner's cheque for her efforts.

She described her win as an "incredible thrill" when accepting the award, saying "I hope this win encourages more young girls to pursue a career in the art world."

Laura Jones told The Project it was “unbelievable” to have won.

“I got the biggest shock of my life this morning,” she said.

“My heart was beating out of my chest.”

Jones said her subject, Winto, was reluctant to sit for the portrait at first, but changed his mind after seeing her previous work.

“I got the feeling he would be hard to convince as there was never a portrait of him in the Archibald before,” jones said.

“I wrote him a nice letter and I met him at an environmental advocacy event after I did a series of paintings on the Great Barrier Reef and I found him to be really humble and interesting and the legend that he is, but it planted the seed then and then he said yeah, come and do the sitting.”

Jones added that while Winton never said he loved the portrait, he did congratulate her on the win.

As for the prize money, Jones said she’ll be spending it on new canvases and and pay off some debt.