Former South African artist's take on people in major solo Auckland exhibition next month

Auckland’s former South African artist Lauryne Hart will provide an impassioned view on people at a major solo exhibition in Takapuna, Auckland, next month.



Hart moved to New Zealand 12 years ago but still has a passion for the people and colour of her home country. Her exhibition at the Bruce Mason Centre opens on February 2 and closes February 26. The works range from $600 to $2900.



She and her family shifted in 1997 because of increased crime in South Africa. Three parents of children in her daughter's class were killed in the space of a few months and `that to us was the final straw hence the decision to emigrate’.



Although Hart trained as a draughtsman she has painted all her adult life. She gave up her job as a North Shore insurance broker last May to go painting fulltime.



``The demand for my paintings increased to such an extent that I found no free time between painting and working in insurance. I also realized it was impossible to build my business with limited time so I took the plunge and became a full time artist,’’ Hart said today.



``I want to uplift and make people enjoy looking at my work, not because it is a statement or a shock, but because the colour delights. I just love to paint people at work as this is really life - we work and we struggle to survive and in doing so we are fulfilling a purpose and are ultimately happy. That’s why I use the vibrant colours - joy are found even in hard labour.



``I love to draw faces and draw different nationalities or people from different times on the same canvas as people are the same across time and space. It’s not politics, sport or business of the day that affects us so much as it is our relationships with each other.



``People are what life is about. Life or loss or laughter or tears, it is people all over the world and their emotions relate to me better than a landscape which in all its glory cannot experience life.’’



Hart said she loves painting people of Africa - with their love of life and vibrancy of colour and speech. No one dresses in black - they dress in all the colours of the rainbow.



``South Africa contains many and varied cultures. A similar melting pot of cultures exists in New Zealand, the country I now call home. This gives me continued inspiration to show the oneness we experience despite our differences. The subjects of my paintings are not the landscapes of a particular time or place, but rather the people of all times and places.’’