A Taranaki artist has won a $20,000 art prize for her portrait of prominent Māori climate activist Tuhi-Ao Bailey. Maryanne Shearman’s work Tuhi-Ao , an oil painting on canvas, was chosen as the winner from 451 entries and 37 finalists in the 2024 Adam Portraiture Award on Wednesday evening. The win was announced at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata today.
“I wanted to paint a picture of someone who deserved to be painted - someone who deserves to be honoured, who doesn’t always do that for themselves,” Shearman told the Herald . “She is an example to all of us because she is completely authentic.” Shearman was “super hopeful that I could capture not just her beauty, but the heaviness she carries for her kaupapa”.
“I had in my head the kind of wairua I wanted to capture, then I went to Parihaka and just took 100 or so photos of her in her space. “I wanted to get her tangi, her cry.” Shearman chose sets of favourites amongst the photos she had taken and allowed Bailey to choose the final picture.
Many of the photos were “too heavy” and “too sad”, and despite wanting to capture Bailey’s sadness, the final image ended up being something completely different. They settled on a shot of Bailey “full smile, mid-kōrero, a gesture which captures the light”. “She is standing in the Parihaka food-forest, next to the awa Waitotoroa.
Ko ia te whenua, ko te whenua ko ia.” When Shearman discovered she’d won the award, she fe.