Robert Hannaford's retrospective: With Ron Kandelaars in the Adelaide City region of South Australia

Ron: It was in the confines of what was then the Riverton Railway Station Cafe and Gallery - almost a decade ago - that I first met Robert Hannaford or "Alfie" as he's known to his mates.

Trying to get a handle on this famous portrait artist was no mean feat given his reticence to talk about himself or his artistic process.

Robert Hannaford: "I try to capture as much about the person or place as much as I possibly can."

Ron: It's an approach he's brought to bear on portraits of Riverton cockies, famous urban planners and Australian Prime Ministers. As the son of a Riverton farmer, Alfie spent many summer holidays in the town railyards lugging bags of wheat.

It seems far removed from later meetings with movers and shakers in the corridors of power. But despite the interstate and international commissions, Alfie's never really left the mid-north - he's never wanted to. His current retrospective at Carrick Hill is proof that while you may be able take boy out of the farm you can never take the farm out of the boy.

Taking pride of place in the exhibition is a sculpture of "lambie" - an emaciated little lamb Alfie found on a roadside and nursed back to health and kept as his pet.

Robert: "I think the lack of fear helps. Makes them grow a bit better. Hand reared lambs often grow up bigger than their cousins in the paddock. He had this noble, I would call it a noble skull. You know quite an aquiline nose and feet."

Ron: Versatility has been a Hannaford hallmark. Bradman's cover drive outside Adelaide Oval is proof of what he can do with a sporting commission and soon he'll start work on a portrait of ex Collingwood great Nathan Buckley. But it's his portraits of the politically powerful that brought him considerable fame and notoriety in the mid nineties.

Ron: "What sort of bloke is Paul Keating?

Robert: "He's a lovable guy. He's a very interesting fascinating man and quite lovable in his way … We got to know each other pretty well. I painted Paul over a long period. I think I went up to Sydney about three times."

Ron: From seascapes to landscapes, from the translucency of grape skins to the freshness of apples in a supermarket bag, Alfie's work has always been about stark realism. When Hugh Stretton fronted for his portrait with cut hand and bandage, Alfie thought it should stay in. And throughout forty years of painting his own portraits have served to chart a very personal journey.

The self-portraits cover the many changing chapters in Robert Hannaford's life. From perhaps the arrogance and self-assurance of youth to the uncertainties of middle age and then more recently his face to face confrontation with his own mortality.

In 2006 Alfie was diagnosed with cancer of the tongue and neck. The doctors said the most likely cause was holding his cadmium-coated paintbrushes in his mouth during his years at the easel. With cancer came chemotherapy and a dramatic fall on the scales with this one time Port Magpies Reserves footballer, again returning to his playing weight in the 60s.

Robert: "I was fascinated to see a few ribs and things starting to show again after many years."

Ron: "But did you ever think that it might be one of your last paintings?

Robert; "Yes, it did cross my mind. It does happen sometimes that you know you have the treatment and then the cancer goes on and it's the beginning of the end. I was so grateful to be able to paint that picture. I thought even if it is my last I'm really happy. I'm happy to be painting... I'm happy to be doing what I like doing."

Robert Hannaford's retrospective is on show at Carrick Hill until March 24th. The exhibition is accompanied by the publication, Robert Hannaford: Natural Eye, written by John Neylon and published by Wakefield Press.

Published 9th March 2008