About Me
Welcome to the About Me Menu.
Whenever I make a new acquaintance I am usually asked “Where are you from?”. It could be my accent which throws them. Known as “received English” common to British colonial subjects, it’s an accent hard to nail down. A close relative of HM the Queen’s English, but not quite. Nor quite the parroted BBC Overseas Radio English. Only other ex-British Colonial subjects identify it immediately.
I reply “How much time have you got?”
Its a long story.
So, for a brief synopsis here’s the first course.
Starters:
I was born in East Africa in 1957, and spent an idyllic childhood in Nairobi and Mombasa . In 1969 my family moved to the Middle East and I was sent to boarding school in Surrey, England. On leaving school in 1975 I attended St. Martin’s School of Art in London, fully intending to pursue a career in art. However, personal upheaval forced me to abandon my career plans and return to Bahrain. It wasn’t until 1994, almost twenty years later when my four children were growing up, that I was able to re-start my career as a professional artist. After a very successful decade’s run in the Arabian Gulf I once again pulled up my tent pegs and moved to Malta in 2002 where I currently reside.
Main Course:
1992: My first solo exhibition in Bahrain was a great success and all subsequent exhibitions in Bahrain and Dubai proved to be equally rewarding. My name during this period was Hidaya Said Lawrence. I painted watercolour scenes depicting idyllic interiors which I created from imagined spaces, and which were heavily influenced by my early love for the art of the Pre-Raphaelites. The consensus of opinion among those who appreciated my work from this period was that my paintings generated a satisfying sense of serenity, of contentment in seclusion, of reflection in stillness. The year 2000 saw my last exhibition of this theme which had come to be known as “Rooms With A View”.
In 2002 I left the Arabian Gulf and moved to Malta. It was familiar territory for me since my family had, after leaving Africa, regularly spent our summers there. Ironically, it was at this juncture of moving forward that I felt drawn back to my African childhood. With three decades of water under the many bridges I had crossed since leaving Africa, it came as something of a surprise to me to revisit my memories of my childhood.
In 2004 the lavish exhibition “Faces of Africa” was launched in Malta. The success of this venture was to be followed by many annual exhibitions. “Faces of Africa” has become till today the main body of my artistic expression.
In 2008 I expanded my portfolio to include cheerful paintings of Brighton, a hotspot favourite of mine, and London, which were exhibited at various venues in the UK.
In 2017 another ghost of my youth resurfaced. It was to prove to be my most emotional and rewarding exhibition. “The Passion”, a collection of mixed media paintings offering a contemporary interpretation of a religious theme-the passion of Christ-was held in the stunning ambiance of the Oratory of the Cospicua Parish Church. It was to date my last solo exhibition.
Dessert:
After the 2017 “Passion” exhibition I felt perhaps my life as an artist had been consummated. I hit the proverbial writer’s brick wall. Fool me. As all artists know, the drive to create, which is simply an outward manifestation of the internal journey of self-exploration, is all consuming and never dies. This compulsion has always propelled me forward, riding high on waves of creative energy and at the time seems to know no bounds. Then without forewarning, it hits a dry patch and the creative impulse evaporates. The trick is not to believe those compelling doomsayer voices. Then unexpectedly from out of nowhere a spark ignites the dry wood.
2022 sees me returning to another artistic influence of my youth, that of Arthur Rackham. Drawings reliant on warm brown backgrounds and strong dark lines, and just a touch of colour highlights. I am once again surprising myself to find a long familiar appreciation of the quaint countryside settings of Britain is demanding my attention. I have over the last few years fallen in love with Wales, specifically Hay-on-Wye and its environs. This new collection of my art focusing on Hay-on-Wye is on the drawing board. Stay tuned.
Email: cslawrence@melita.com
Mobile: +356 99244684 (Malta)