David Larwill

Of all the Roar artists, Larwill has emerged as one of the most distinctive. His style of populating his paintings with stylized human figures and animals, his use of childlike forms, and the occasional inclusion of slogans, give his work a naive quality which sometimes seems simplistic. However this is misleading, for beneath the veneer of innocence lies a considerable sophistication. Larwill evokes an extraordinary range of feelings, moods and expressions through his frenetic compositions and use of intense colour.

Inspired by several visits to Arnhem Land and Central Australia, as well as to Morocco, Europe and New York, Larwill brings a primal strength to his painting. Sometimes his works evoke a sense of urgency so that the viewer is drawn into a maelstrom of anguished or celebratory forms whose circumstances demand response or resolution. Usually Larwill inclines more towards imagery which is innocent and spontaneous, rather than sinister or threatening. Characteristically, his paintings of the late 1980s and 1990s throng with dancing figures, tribal masks, colourful trees, birds , flowers and fish, and are thoroughly engaging. Occasionally, though there are more sinister overtones. Larwill's dark and brooding work Streetwise, painted 1993 after a visit to New York, is a case in point, and is dominated by a menacing figure brandishing a gun.

- Nevill Drury

Extract from 'David Larwill', Australian Painting Now, Eds. Laura Murry Cree and Neville Drury, Craftsman House, 2000

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