Shipsportait, art and boats
Interview with the “sailing artist” Lorenza Cavalli
With the spring approaching, all the greatest events for luxury entertainment are back.
Numerous the events in the field of arts, which will merge with other deluxe sectors, such as fashion, hotellerie and cooking. But with the return of good wheather, also the sportive season is back, with its international events, such as those in the nautical sector. Why, then not combining arts and boats?
For the readers fan of the sea and of sailing, as well as for all fan of painting, Luxgallery presents the works of a young artists from Parma, Lorenza Cavalli, who combined these two elements in her research. We interviewed her to enter her world, made of sea, boats and lots of colours.
How does your painting, consecrated to the world of sailing and boats, generate?
It derives from the love for the sea and from the curiosity for the way in which the water plays with the boat hull. By observing carefully the nature of this encounter, made of reflexes and matter, I felt a sort of pictorial challenge, a work in progress aimed at bringing the subject back through the pictorial gestural expressiveness.
After studying arts at the Brera Academy I devoted myself to the reproduction of water on the canvas. My goal is to combine in painting the shape of boats with the naturally pictorial effects of the sea.
Two elements that lend themselves very much to arts..
In fact, for me boats are sculptures, perfect contemporary icons reaching the most of their splendour during the racing phase. Through the oil-on-canvas technique, detailed by definition, I like to catch the luminescence of the matter “zooming” on details. That is where my hyper-realist style comes from. Perhaps a passion that blossomed when I used to work on board as a member of the crew. To be honest, my canvases include also other subjects, other shapes, however over the last 6-7 years I specialized on the detailed restoration of this subject. After the canvas and the exhibitions, the first commissions arrived as well as links to some of the protagonists of the nautical world.
How do you choose the destinations or the sailing events to paint?
I followed especially the Rolex Cup. I had the opportunity to take en plein air some photographic shots, on a rubber dinghy. A practical and necessary need to render a faithful image to the original, caught while this is in movement. At the beginning I didn’t know boats, it was my poetic inclination towards hyper-realism to give me a greater confidence.
This meticulous behaviour towards nature has been technically translated through oil painting. Once the shots are taken, I make up the composition into my atelier moving from Milan, where, until 6th April, my personal exhibition is set up at the Yacht Club, and Parma. After the work of photographic “impression”, where boats serve as real models, I work on a canvas for 20-30 days, drying included. Thus, the boat race is the moment when I can obtain a series of subjects on which I work afterwards.
You create oils on canvas for monumental works of art. Does the passion for the subject prevail or is there a target and purchaser requirement?
The subject is at the core of my research. I prefer extensive and comfortable formats, rendering the size of the boat while it stand out against the sky and the sea. Be they horizontal or vertical, the canvas must show the boat details as if they were zoomed. But the choice can also fall on smaller formats if required by the ship owner, or to play with the interior. I prefer using smaller canvases in order to focus on the subject, on its reflex on the hull or on the details of the boat, which can be both sailing boat or motorboat.
You follow the most important nautical races and return them into hyper-realistic compositions. However, the sizes of the canvas and few details convey a more romantic idea. How do you relate toward a nautical event?
My production is evolving more towards the purchasers. At the beginning I was attracted by the agonistic tension of the competition, then I deepened my relationship with the buyer or the owner. An emotional tie generated, with the subject as well as with who requested it. My first boats showed the strength of the competition, then I consecrated myself to old boats, with a more poetical taste. Over the last time, instead, I am developing towards a reduction of the formats to realize detailed works, where the matter and the light are privileged. The nicest and most romantic way in which these two aspects come into contact.
Despite your young age, your works have been appreciated inside Italian and international galleries. This time, we can admire your canvases in an exclusive space such as the Yachts Club Milan. Could you explain us how this collaboration was born?
Everything began last year. I had been working on the subject for few years when I discovered the Yacht Club. Here I found a synergy between my idea of navigation and the one suggested by this reality. Thus, I presented my book and the first exhibition was set up from November to February 2007.
Recently one of my articles has been published on Superyacht March issue. So, I had the chance to attend the events organized by the Yacht Clubs. Furthermore, I am one of the few artists who portrays this kind of subjects. I am at ease here, it is an exciting environment for my constant challenge with the subject. Moreover, I like being in contact with a public of sailing fans like me. Last September Dr. Romiti ordered a painting of its “creature”, set up at the Franchini Stand at the Nautical Showroom in Genova. I had seen it only on a picture, thus when I found it in front of my eyes it was a great sensation. Wow, it was as if it was mine as well! Since then I thought of it as a new challenge. I would like to realize prototypes of boats to suggest to the shipyards. I believe it would be a kind of work that would well adapt to the target, given the trifle and the precision that need oil-on-canvas. Furthermore, it would be a further way to distinguish myself.
Your work is in constant evolution. Besides this news, what are your future challenges?
I would like to deepen the direct relationship with the navigation and its world. First of all, I would like to have to chance to turn the painting into a prototype, then I would like to enter the real shipowner’s world to portray the subject. After the casual interaction with the world of navigation, I would like to meet its protagonists. My hyper-realism is evolving towards a magic realism, in which some details are zoomed becoming almost abstract. I am reaching a wider wish, in which also the shipowner, and not only the boat anymore, would be hyper-realistically magic.
Boat Shows, Clubs, Exhibitions And Galleries, Motor Yachts, Museums, Sailboats,
Tags: Brera Academy, Lorenza Cavalli, luxury entertainment, Nautical Showroom Genova, shipsportait, Yacht Club
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