Portraits of femininity

Saverio Lucci's works on various moods of woman are on display at new Dubai coffeeshop


Saverio Lucci's works explore the various moods and facets of a woman. In one painting, a young girl sits demurely, her shy smile reflected in her eyes. On another canvas, a woman is hidden behind a lace veil that conceals her face but not the intense look in her dark eyes. Another painting depicts a woman standing alone in a field, bathed in the golden glow of the sun, her curly tresses gently caressed by the breeze.

"I like to paint portraits of women because I am fascinated with the contrast between a woman's external feminine softness and her infinite inner strength. Each woman is a universe by herself and I try to delve deep into her personality to bring out every nuance of it on my canvasses," he says.

Painting is his hobby and he has had several successful exhibitions all over the world. Saverio is currently exhibiting his paintings at the Vivel Pastry and coffeeshop at the La Plage complex, Jumeirah. In his first exhibition in Dubai, he has on show several haunting portraits of women, some black and white watercolours depicting horses and a few bright, modernistic paintings. The artworks are priced between Dh6,000 to Dh50,000 and are on display at Vivel, from 7.30am to 11.30pm until Tuesday.

There is no doubt that he is a gifted artist, but what makes Saverio's work special is the ancient, timeless look. He achieves this by a technique called 'encausto', where a painting is directly laid down on a wooden plank and then worked with consecutive layers of transparent oil, gold leaf and beeswax.

When these layers are heated, the wax gets absorbed into the wood bringing out the bright colours. The process takes several months but the result is an intense look with an amazing play of light and shade.

"This technique was used by early Italian masters like Botticelli and also the renaissance artists. I have just given it a contemporary interpretation," says Saverio.

He learnt these techniques while training to be a restorer and interior designer in his native Italy.

"What I know about interior decoration has been developed from my work as a restorer. I loved the beauty of the old houses and furniture I restored in Italy and have developed expertise in recreating the friezes, gold and silver leaf work, the murals, the period furniture and other art decoration," underlines Saverio. He now runs an art decoration company based in Italy and travels all over the world decorating palaces, hotels and other prestigious buildings.

The domes at the Royal Mirage Hotel and the art decoration at Mercato Mall, Jumeirah, are some outstanding examples of his work in Dubai. Saverio brought in a multinational team of artists for the Mercato project. "The facades of the buildings on the interior walls are all hand painted. Each represents the typical architecture of various Italian cities and of different historical periods. Some of my artists specialise in the stonework look of the middle ages, while others created the aged marble effect of the renaissance period and yet others did the intricate decorative details," explains Saverio.