Having spent her childhood enchanted by Africa’s exotic landscapes and enigmatic people, Maltese-Irish artist C. S. LAWRENCE pours out the continent’s haunting beauty onto her canvases. Miriam Galea finds out more about the artist’s eclectic background and her upcoming exhibition

“The recurring African theme is inescapable,” explains artist Caroline Said Lawrence. “Anyone who has experienced Africa will instantly recognise the pull of the magnificent continent and the enigmatic faces of its people. Africa has an artistic magnetism all of its own.”

The title of Lawrence’s exhibition, Mosaic, covers both her techniques and her subject matter, which, as she tells me, ranges from African faces to figurative studies. Her paintings are a mixture of realistic portrayals of faces and the human figure, often set within an abstract dreamscape that allows the artist to explore the oriental decorative designs she is so fascinated with. “While abstract art relies on skilful manipulation of colour and form to effectively evoke a mood and convey a message, for me the human form, and particularly the face, is the most powerful vehicle for doing this,” Lawrence says.“The evocative power and passion within the graceful lines of the human form have forever enticed the artist’s brush but within portraiture, it is the eyes that beguile and entrance me.” She describes her work as a narrative art form, her core objective being to make every painting look “like a freeze-framed moment in a story that unfolds with every viewing”. It is not entirely surprising that her earliest influences were the Pre-Raphaelites and the Orientalists. “Both artistic styles incorporate the lush decorativeness of Middle Eastern fabric and carpet design and both were very narrative in their subject matter. I continue to be fascinated with the rich employment of design motifs in Middle Eastern art and frequently include them in my paintings. The slight abstraction of my paintings’ backgrounds is simply a strategy to neutralise the realism of my figurative subjects.”

Lawrence was born in East Africa in 1957, spending her childhood in Nairobi and Mombasa. She speaks of these years as exotic and full of adventure. “Whenever I recall my early childhood in East Africa, I feel like one of the children in the Chronicles of Narnia who steps into the cupboard and crosses over into a fantasy world. I think the Africa I grew up in, no longer exists because of the changed political environment,” she says, “It was often perceived as a world of no boundaries, an impression formed because of the privileged life enjoyed by colonials at that time and the intrinsic nature of the landscape. It was a world of limitless adventure, of thrilling journeys through untamed and breathlessly beautiful landscapes. A place that today’s children, unfortunately, rarely experience.”

Eventually, Lawrence’s family moved to the Middle East when the Kenyan government nationalised its assets so that all non-nationals had to leave the country. “My father, who spoke six languages fluently including Arabic, was working for the American oil company Caltex at the time, and was invited to set up the company in the Arabian Gulf. In much the same way as colonial life in Africa afforded endless opportunities for an adventurous lifestyle, the same can be said for the Arabian Gulf.” Lawrence proceeded to travel extensively during her formative years, managing to witness the untamed beauty of a continent that had still not started to be developed. “The United Arab Emirates had yet to undergo the building boom that it is now swamped in, and the exoticness of its Arabian desert ambiance was much more visible. One didn’t need to book an excursion to visit a traditional sprawling Arab bazaar and experience the heady mix of spice aromas and vivid splashes of colour in the profusion of richly decorated fabrics. My exposure to these visual feasts left me with an abiding love for rich colour and ornate design.”

Lawrence was then sent for boarding school in Surrey, England, after which she studied art at St Martin’s College in London. How did she find the grey and rainy city after a childhood spent in the hot, bright African sunlight? “There is no doubt that London on a grey day is very grey, but London is more, so much more than rain and grey clouds” the artist says, “It has to be one of the most exciting cities in the world, bursting at the seams with cultural events of every nature and sourced from the four corners of the globe. And there I feel that it is the artist who becomes the canvas and it is the city that becomes the painter, sweeping its dynamic, energised strokes of colour from corner to corner across the board. It is the only way I can begin to describe how that extraordinary city can leave its mark.”

Doesn’t she think that African and tribal themes tend to be sensationalised and commercialised? “The beauty of this continent and the work of talented artists both within and without Africa should not be confused with the mass of tourist trivia that is sadly exported worldwide. It is ironic that the commercialisation of “African art” can trivialise its subject matter so much when in fact the whole depth and breadth of the contemporary modern art explosion was sparked by Picasso’s return to traditional African art styles.”

Lawrence needs total isolation when she is working and paints throughout the night when she can escape phones, doorbells and distracting voices. “Alone with my canvas, I can have an uninterrupted conversation! I can’t describe the frustration when the sweep of a paint-loaded brush is halted mid-flow; it must be a similar story for writers when the words, hanging between thought and paper, simply disappear at the clanging of the doorbell! The car bumper plaque hanging from my studio door with ‘Danger: Artist at Work’ written on it is not entirely meant to be taken as humorous!”

Lawrence is also a passionate art teacher, driven by her belief that everyone has a streak of creativity in them, depending on how well they have managed to preserve the childhood impulse of self-expression. “When someone comes to me and says they cannot draw to save their life, I love to take up the challenge and show them their artistic potential,” she insists, “The exploration of self-expression through art is also important for people’s sense of well-being and confidence. While successful breakthroughs with my adult students are always highly rewarding, it is probably my classes for children that are my most exciting.

Through their enthusiasm and energy I am almost always left feeling I still have so much to learn about honest unconstrained expression.”

C.S. Lawrence is now living in Malta, her father’s nativeland, where she can focus on her work now that her children are grown up. Gallery G will be hosting her exhibition between tomorrow and 9 November. The exhibition is sponsored by Attard & Co. with Goiya Wines, Digiprint, Leonardo art frames and Casorenzo art studio. Gallery G at No. 4, Sir Ugo Mifsud Street, Lija is open to the public between 9am and 5pm on weekdays and 9.30am and 12.30pm on Saturdays.