Enver Larney

www.enver.net

When did you first become interested in art?

At around the age of three. I grew up under apartheid South Africa. Art was a means out of a tough situation which required immediate address. Even then, I had to be careful of what I produced.

What style of art do you use most?

Impressionism. I was attracted to Impressionism because it stood independently alone and challenged the order of the day and societally accepted mores and norms.

Even today this challenge is still valid, though many artists appear relieved under this banner while copying photographs that they had taken.Others use partial images of photographs they randomly grab from periodicals, unconcerned about intellectual rights of the original owners.

We live in a world of smash and grab. True artistic endeavor rises way above such behavior.

Rice Fields at Bumi Agung Lampung Sumatra Indonesia 2008 20 x 26 inches 50 x 65 cm

My walk from the Ombak Indah surf camp along Sumatra’s pristine western coast took me through some of the most magical coconut groves one can imagine. Like a scenic wonder from a fairy tale, these forests are peppered with thatched roof houses set on wooden legs as if they are about to walk away into the thicket. The world around here moves slow but with purpose, and even dogs have a lazy way of barking, as if they could not care less. Clean swept grounds which surround these tiny houses are constantly pecked at by chickens and usually a tied up monkey would watch it all from a stake in the shade somewhere. These monkeys are used by the locals to climb 100 feet high trees to carefully twist their valuable cargo until it drops with a thud to the ground. I was saddened by their captivity. If monkeys could talk.

Among all this beauty, cultivated lands are used for growing of rice. Large fields like these are the most common source of commerce apart from fishing and the means that tourism bring to one of the poorest regions of Indonesia. Offshore fishing produces the best of catches in tuna, mackeral and other sailfish. Freshly caught and fried with spicy rice, it provides for healthy inhabitants who all seemed very attuned to their world.

When I painted this canvas, the resident farmer indicated that he slept in the hut situated in the middle of his field. He offered another hut for me to sleep in if I wanted to. The locals were very generous and friendly and somewhat impressed by the art of picture making. I was glad to bring something new into their lives.

Has your style changed from when you first began as an artist?

Yes. When I was younger, my art reflected the struggle to rid South Africa of the scourge of apartheid. I produced figurative work via linocuts, woodcuts, lithography, drawing. I have just about done all forms of art and settled on a style that comes as easy as breathing in good mountain air.

What medium do you use?

Oils on canvas

What made you choose that medium?

It is the most durable and respected for this quality. Most artists are afraid of oils. I cannot possibly use any other medium than pure pigment from the earth suspended in a durable viscous natural oil.

Do your ideas come from life or imagination?

Life. This is where reality lies. One’s imagination is valid in the dream state. But there it belongs and there it ends.

How do you choose your images and colours?

They choose ME. Photons from the sun has not properly been investigated and its properties very little understood, even today. I am constantly learning about white light eminating from our host star.

Thamalakane river at Maun Botswana 2008 20 x 26 inches 50 x 65 cm

After unseasonal high rainfall, the Okavango Delta was difficult to navigate. The danger of crocodiles and hippos posed a problem but those are the breaks. Painted during occasional rainfall which provided for the thick and humid atmosphere – from the grounds of Crocodile Camp, one of many throughout the area.

There is nothing more beautiful than seeing a wild African river run carelessly away into the distance. The Okavango Delta brings life giving waters to many big game and it is not entirely uncommon to see slow moving herds of elephants and other game drink their fill at the water’s edge just before sunset each evening. Crocodiles always the opportunistic beasts that they are have watched this event for thousands of years, choosing their night’s dinner at will.

When water dries up, hippos are at their most dangerous as these huge vegetarian animals protect their entry into the water’s edge with lethal cunning. They can easily outpace humans over short distances, trampeling them to the ground for crocodiles to finish off. This is exactly the manner in which the majority of deaths occur in Africa each year.

Visiting Africa to paint is one of my greatest pleasures and I have returned there more frequently in recent years. In localities such as these, inspiration comes easily and the resulting work always refreshing and worthwhile. Here, a typical African sky of fast cirrus clouds completes a memorable day along the Thamalakane river.

Who is your favourite artist?

Vincent van Gogh. Whose artistic struggles are little understood unless one paints in the open like I do, and are familiar with the unique challenges that it poses.I have painted around Arles, where he spent his last days and even around St Paul de Mausole in St Remy where he was laid up after Gauguin fled, after his nine months painting around Provence with Vincent.

What is your favourite piece of work by yourself?

It is a painting done of the canals in Amsterdam, not included here. I sold it to a Canadian collector and have tried to return there to paint another, but failed to capture the same magic.

How much time (on average) does it take to complete a work?

5 – 8 hours

How well do you take criticism?

If constructive, good, if ignorant banter, bad. Mostly all the responses I get are good, so I am not familiar with bad criticism.

What do you do to overcome a ‘block’?

Time is too short to entertain “blocks”. I cannot understand how this can happen, but I’m sure that it does.

Eiffel Tower from the Seine with boats Paris France winter 2005 20 x 27 inches 50 x 71 cm.

Late winter with zero temperatures and fast changing clouds. The coldest winter in Europe in almost fifty years made it difficult to produce but I did manage this canvas and also a similar work the previous day which I sold immediately to a Frenchman living in Paris. The biting cold presented some unusual color configurations which were bleak. Ample cloud created action in the sky which instilled a measure of liveliness. I was able to apply liberal amounts of cobalt which is always a pleasure. Some colors like cobalt, cadmium and reds have a language which translates with ease. During the course of this painting I kept moderately warm with occasional visits to a nearby fire drum which some homeless living under a nearby bridge had lit. They had made quite a home under the bridge and invited me over for a beer and some truly home cooked food. My rudimentary French was sorely tested but we managed to indulge in lively conversation. These encounters with real people living at the very edges of society are classic encounters that cannot be staged. Many of these homeless in the cities of the world are prey to the weather, especially harsh cold snaps which can come at any time.

During the winter of 2005 many of them died on the streets of Paris. They are forgotten in life and disappear like boats in a fog, becoming statistics in a world too busy with itself to notice those struggling in the waters and unable to swim. With every canvas that I paint, some story unfolds around my easel. Sometimes I am invited to participate and at other times I am a silent spectator to it all. To be shown hospitality by the homeless though, is a rare honor and somewhat curious in a city such as Paris. Many of the earlier impressionist painters had been homeless at some stage of their lives here in this city.

How do you know something is ‘finished’? Is it easy to walk away?

A finished painting makes no sense at all.

Have you had exhibits in galleries?

Over fifty one man shows around the world. I don’t keep track of them.

Have you any exhibits in galleries planned for the future?

Possibly the Florence Biennale this year and another show in Italy. I exhibited in Florence in 2005 and enjoyed it very much. I still have not decided yet how I will spend my time this year.

What are your plans for the future?

Stay alive, healthy and take chances in the remotest of places around the world.

What advice would you give new artists?

Trust your instincts. Be bold and brave..DON’T copy photographs!

Florence Italy 2005 20 x 27 inches 50 x 71 cm.

Florentine skyline during late autumn showing the Fiume Arno flowing through its many bridges and past the historic Palazzo Vecchio which has graced this beautiful city since 1299 and from where earlier, parliamentary decisions were taken. Painted from Piazza Michaelangelo for the people of Florence , as an invited guest during their art biennial of December 2005. An early fog which lifted before noon was replaced by fast moving clouds which came in from the west. The light was bright and crisp with ample cobalt in the sky as well as reflected light. Terracotta roofs and brightly lit cadmiums and yellows along the riverbank during the afternoon. The tower on right of the Palazzo Vecchio proudly displayed the Fiorentine flag which echoes of the power and influence that this city held during its time.

Florence is a beautiful city during any time of the year, but autumn brings out strong cadmiums in the surrounding hills and accentuated deep reds of the many terracotta rooftops. Cold air in the lower atmosphere provided for cobalt blue which I was able to goad towards late afternoon when reds started to appear in the sky. At this point in the canvas, I am at liberty to choose to which extend I will allow these reds to influence the composition, but as in this scene, a touch of red was enough to compliment the foreground of buildings. The spot which I have chosen to paint from on this day was very popular with photographers and also a wedding as well as tourists taking group photographs, which meant that I had to move aside whenever someone else needed to borrow this near perfect view of city. The time that was spent in Florence painting, was exhilarating and extremely inspiring given the many great painters who hailed from here. I was constantly mindful of the difficulties that Caravaggio faced during his time alive here and the manner with which he was removed from public life.

Have you done any courses to help you?

Michaelis School of Fine Art University of Cape Town 1969 – 1972. I spent my youth around Perugia in Italy and around Florence, studying the great masters. It was the French though, who ultimately inspired me.

What do you do to market your work?

Not much..they are becoming too valuable to sell.

Do you use social networking in your day to day life?

NO, I don’t network. I am a solitary hunter. The many years that I have spent traveling around the world and visiting the most remote places, has removed me completely from the global art scene, which I refer to with some reservation.

Are you available for work (commissions)?

Anytime, anywhere

Have you got hobbies?

No, but I follow the progress of my team Chelsea FC in London. I am interested in astronomy and those who care for the earth.

Where are you based?

My home is in Australia. Although my home is really planet earth, wherever I find myself.

Mount Ararat North Eastern Anatolia Turkey 2006 20 x 26 inches 50 x 65 cm.

Mount Ararat painted from Dogubayarzit showing the snow line at 3500 meters. Early summer with crisp clear weather and warm temperatures. The summit is 5137 meters high and can be reached in three days of climbing. Jamu , the local Kurdish guide who takes parties to the top, said that the mountain creates an obsession in westerners about Noah and his Ark and that his father has taken an American astronaut into the mountain almost every year for eight years in search of remains of the Ark. Jamu has taken the same person to the summit in search of the Ark for the last four years. I am not obliged to divulge the identity of this astronaut but this obsession certainly shocked me. There are over 500 similar such Great Flood tales across the world in myths and legends passed on by the elders of indigenous tribes. During the course of this painting, a Kurdish family close to this view brought me lunch of dried fish, bread and a huge pot of tea. An incident like this makes years of traveling around the world painting, suddenly seem worthwhile. Kurdish is more difficult for me to speak than French but despite this I learned a great deal about this family and also the history of the region. They spoke of the time when Russian jets flew over here during the first world war and bombed the town which was then situated higher up along the foothills towards Mount Ararat. Instead of rebuilding the original town, they moved down towards the valley and rebuilt in this area. The weather was mild and I walked back up to my lodging at Murat Camping three miles away in the late afternoon and felt as if I was literally on top of the world.

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