Artist Tsering Hannaford has been named a finalist in the 2019 Archibald Prize, one of Australia’s oldest and most prestigious art awards. Judged by the trustees of the Art Gallery of NSW and awarded to the best portrait painting, the Archibald Prize exhibition is a who’s who of Australian culture – from politicians to celebrities, sporting heroes to artists.
Tsering Hannaford is a realist painter based in Adelaide, South Australia. Portraiture is a focus of her practice and she has been hung four times in the Archibald Prize. In 2014 she was highly commended for the Portia Geach Memorial Award and she has been a semi-finalist in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize.
Tsering’s still life paintings explore themes of impermanence and renewal. “My greatest ambition in my work is to allow the viewer to feel like they could be standing right there in the room with me- experiencing the same delicate light, the mood, the stillness,” she said. “In this way I feel I can draw attention to the quiet beauty found in everyday life.”
The daughter of Robert Hannaford, one of Australia’s most eminent portrait painters, Tsering absorbed an attitude towards painting from life, not photographs, as a means of continual learning and discovery of the world around us. Tsering’s floral paintings capture the uniqueness of each bloom, not dissimilar to portraiture.
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