Tsering Hannaford in her father's footsteps as much-prized Archibald finalist realist painter from South Australia

Tsering Hannaford, a multiple Archibald Prize finalist, with a self portrait.

South Australian realist artist Tsering Hannaford was a national Archibald Prize for portraiture finalist every year from 2015 to 2020.

In 2012, Tsering and her artist father Robert Hannaford were the first father and daughter to show together in Salon des Refusés, an exhibition of Archibald entries, and in 2015 they were the first father and daughter selected as finalists for the Archibald Prize. They are ancestors of South Australian colonial widow pioneer Susannah Hannaford.

Tsering Hannaford was born in Adelaide in 1987 to shoemaker Shirley Andris and Robert Hannaford who were living in the inner western Adelaide suburb of West Hindmarsh. That year, Robert Hannaford bought a disused farmhouse and outbuildings at Peters Hill in South Australia’s mid north near Riverton and converted them into a house and studio. Tsering Hannaford was educated at Adelaide University with a bachelor of arts in psychology in 2008, a graduate diploma in art history in 2011 and studied for a masters in art conservation.

At 28, Hannaford won a grant from Arts South Australia to study at two schools in New York: The Grand Central Atelier and the Art Students’ League of New Yorl that had artists including Jackson Pollock, O’Keeffe, Rothko, Ai Weiwei, Rauschenberg as past students.

Mentored by her father from an early age, Hannaford, began painting seriously in 2012 when she was a finalist in the A.M.E Bale Art Prize. This was followed in 2013 by being finalist in the inaugural Royal South Australia Society of the Arts portrait prize and winning the Helpmann Academy emerging artist award and, in 2014, winning the Eran Svigos award for best visual art at the Adelaide Fringe and being finalist in the inaugural Kennedy Art Prize.

In 2014, Hannaford was highly commended in the first of three Portia Geach Memorial Award finals and a semi finalist in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize before reaching to the Archibald Prize finals for the first time in 2015.

Specialising in portraiture, landscapes and still life painting, Hannaford continued with her wide interests including going back to study fashion design at TAFE (Technical and Further Education).