Riverton Light Gallery

Robert (Alfie) Hannaford was born in Riverton, South Australia on November 9th, 1944 and grew up on his family farm.

He is a self taught artist who sought the guidance of his South Australian mentors, Sir Hans Heysen and Ivor Hele. He worked as political cartoonist for the Adelaide Advertiser from 1964 -1967 and has been self employed as a full time artist since 1970.

Although an acclaimed portrait artist, with numerous commissions to his name including paintings of Paul Keating, Dame Joan Sutherland and Sir Donald Bradman, he is also well know for his landscapes, still lifes and nudes.

In 1969 Hannaford won the AME Bale Art Scholarship and he and his wife Catherine moved to Kew in Melbourne to live in the Bale house from1969 – 1973 . He did several portraits whilst there and won the Victorian Artists Society painting prize exhibition in Melbourne.

He has entered the Archibald Prize each year since 1991 and has been a finalist every year that he has entered. He has won the Peoples Choice Award for his Archibald entries in 1991 a portrait of Hugh Stretton, 1996 a Self Portrait and 1998 a portrait of Rolf Prince. In 1990 he won the Doug Moran Prize with his portrait of “Bill”

In 1998 he was commissioned to do the bronze sculpture of Sir Donald Bradman which is positioned in the parklands adjacent to the Victor Richardson Gates near the eastern access to the Adelaide Oval

Hannaford was the inaugural “Fleurieu Peninsula Landscape Art Prize” Winner in 1998 and in 2001 he was commissioned by the Commonwealth Government to paint the Centenary of Federation 2001 painting to hang in Parliament house alongside the Tom Roberts Federation 1901 painting. Robert took nearly three years to complete this work and did individual sketches of each of the members of parliament before painting them in the main artwork. In 2001 Robert also undertook a six month artist – in – residency at Sydney Grammar School.

Drawing and the environment have always been his passions. Much time is spent walking through the hills and observing birds and animals and trees and plants. He is fascinated by nature and one of his objectives is the learning from nature or exploring the character or nature of a person and expressing something of it in his art work. “Portraiture is an exploration of character that goes beyond photography. It is an ongoing thing over a long period of time. You get elements of various emotions that can be sensed in the painting.” Hannaford does all of his portraits, paintings and sketches from life, never using photographs.

In February 2006 Robert was diagnosed with cancer of the tongue and underwent chemotherapy treatment in April & May of that year. This put a minor halt on his works for a while. By July 06 he was back painting again, completing the portrait of Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue that was commissioned by the Commonwealth of Australia for inclusion in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

2008 has seen the opening of the “Riverton Light Gallery ” which is a newly renovated sculpture studio and gallery in the main street of Riverton in the Mid North of South Australia. There will be a number of exhibitions of various artists there in the future.