Staring down the barrel

Ray Columbus by Auckland artist Mark Rutledge. Photo / Supplied

The man in the portrait looking at you from this page is a man we all know, Kiwi pop legend Ray Columbus, as beloved for his sunny smile as his catchy songs. But in this huge painting by Auckland artist Mark Rutledge, voted People's Choice winner in this year's Adam Portraiture Awards, there's something intense about the look in Columbus' eyes: sad, vulnerable, a little haunted. As it turned out, he was a man staring down the barrel at his own mortality.

"The portrait caught a moment in time," says Columbus on the phone from his home near Warkworth. "It was quite a while after my heart attack [in 2004] and I had just had a mini-stroke, what they call a TIA [a transient ischemic attack]. I was recovering from that and a few weeks after we did the sittings for the portrait, I had a major stroke on June 3, 2008.

"I am so glad Mark got that image. It was an interesting process. He had this wonderful young photographer - I sat for hours while they took hundreds of photos and finally Mark said, 'That's the one. That captures you as I know you.' By that time we'd had dinner together, he came to visit us and he'd got to know [Columbus' wife] Linda and I.

"First of all I was completely flattered and humbled when he said he wanted to paint my portrait. Once upon a time before camera and film, a portrait was the only way you could get some modicum of mortality. My hair has grown a bit whiter since but I was thrilled by the way my little goatee looked.

"I had a pterygium in my right eye - there's a red fleck through there in the painting but I've had surgery on it since then because it was also cancerous so that's another thing that's there. We're big fans of Lucien Freud, we love figurative art and I love the way he does warts and all. My old friend Peter Vuletich, who used to have a gallery in Auckland in the 60s, said to me when he saw the portrait, 'My God, it's so like you but even better'."

Columbus says the stroke, which partially paralysed the right side of his body, badly affected his speech and, just as devastating, his ability to sing. "I couldn't sing at Sir Howard Morrison's funeral so I spoke very carefully. I couldn't understand why I couldn't sing - I would just break out in tears. Linda told me to buck up my ideas and put some spine in my backbone."

Specialists at Auckland Hospital have since taught Columbus two "simple exercises" which have helped him sing again - his speech now also seems strong and clear. However, he says he is "not terribly happy" with the quality of his singing so the way ahead will be the new Ray Columbus Foundation which will see him work with children.

"I don't plan on being a professional singer any more," says the 67-year-old. "I want to help kids so I don't have to put so much pressure on myself."

Incredibly, the Ray Columbus work was Rutledge's first portrait. It will join a gallery of rock musicians he is planning to paint over the next year or so, including Iggy Pop's bass player Mike Watt, stoner rocker Brant Bjork and, eventually, Iggy Pop himself. Rutledge has a show of drawings at his Auckland studio next weekend and flies out to London to start work on Watt's portrait in a couple of weeks.

Curator Kate Wells, who chose the 40 works in the Lopdell House show from 93 finalists in the Adam Portraiture Award exhibition at Wellington's Shed 11, says one-quarter of the paintings she has selected are self-portraits. One of the more unusual examples is Under My Skin (Self-Portrait) by Elspeth Shannon of Paekakariki in which the artist's face looks out from a tiger's head. "I hear there is a sexuality exploration in it," says Wells. "Whether she is comfortable in her own skin is often what she is about. I think she is exploring the complexity of how comfortable she is being in a female body."

Another Wellington artist, Jonathan Brough, who works at Weta Workshop, has painted himself as Icarus on Crete, head decorated with feathers and aviator goggles before he sets off into the sky, while Meredith Collins' self-portrait Ta Moko sees her mouth embellished with the most delicate floral moko.

The finalists in this year's awards, won by Harriet Bright of Kapiti (whose nude Kayte is included in the Lopdell House selection), originally featured a large portrait of killer Clayton Weatherston by artist Liam Gerrard. Australian judge Andrew Sayers, director of the National Portrait Gallery, had no idea who Weatherston was. It was withdrawn after it was discovered Gerrard had wrongly stated that Weatherston had signed a permission form.

"That raises the question of what do we read into a portrait when we know the story behind it," says Wells. "The Clayton Weatherston portrait was well-painted but people became polarised. Is it only offensive when you know the story, like the Myra Hindley painting? It wasn't an offensive painting but it does make us think about what we see as being evil."

EXHIBITION

What: Adam Portraiture Award Touring Selection
Where and when: Lopdell House, Titirangi, to June 7
What: 60 Drawings, by Mark Rutledge
Where and when: 115 Cook St, opening Friday April 23 at 6pm, and April 24-25, 9am-5pm