David Larwill (1956–2011) was an Australian artist recognisable by his distinctive and exuberant style based on bold colour, stylised figures and simplified form.

The following year, Larwill started studying ceramics at Prahran College of Advanced Education but dropped out of the course after three months, and worked as a labourer at a steel mill in nearby Hastings.

He then moved to Noosa in Queensland, to live in a girlfriend's parents' villa, and left Australia to travel throughout Europe and North America for 18 months.

[1] Larwill returned to Melbourne in 1979 and moved into a St Kilda flat with art students Peter Ferguson and Wayne Eager.

[2] The contemporary Australian painter, Peter Booth, had a profound impact upon the development of Larwill's early painting style.

Larwill attended a 1979 exhibition of Booth's work at Pinacotheca Gallery, Richmond, Victoria, which consisted of large narrative paintings depicting the end of the world.

Disillusionment with art school experiences and the difficulties of breaking into the commercial gallery scene led to the establishment of Roar Studios, Brunswick Street, Fitzroy in 1982.

The group aimed to counteract perceived biases in the local art community against women, young people and ethnic minorities.

David Larwill’s affable larrikinism and his powerful style attracted young emerging Melbourne artists who shared a similar desire to show their work.

The core original founding group of the ROAR Studio collective included Larwill, Sarah Faulkner, Mark Howson, Karan Hayman, Mark Schaller, Ann Howie, Daniel Kogan, Peter Ferguson, Wayne Eager, Pasquale Giardino, Richard Birmingham, Michael Nicholls, Stephen McCarthy, Maggie MacNamara, Andrew Ferguson, Russell Cook, Glenda Wisemen, Julie Rosewarne and more.

The style of the ROAR artists was eclectic and they openly acknowledged their debt to a previous generation of Melbourne figurative expressionist painters including John Perceval, Danila Vassilieff and early Sidney Nolan.

Larwill had extended stays in Central Australia (1990 and 1991) where he spent time working with local artists and conducting workshops.

Following an invitation to travel to Kakadu National Park and see its world-famous rock art sites in 1998, Larwill also participated in Stop Jabiluka Mine with Mark Schaller and Peter Walsh.

The exhibition was held at Gould Galleries, Melbourne, in June 1998, as a protest against the proposed uranium mine that was planned for the wilderness area and park.

In 2003 Larwill, Karan Hayman, Peter Walsh, Greg Ades, Tanya Hoddinott and Mark Schaller all travelled to Woomera and visited the proposed nuclear waste dump sites with indigenous leaders and then held exhibition of works ' Secret Country ' from the trip again at Gould Galleries to raise funds to support the cause.

With the aid of new manager, Ken McGregor, that was the beginning of a very successful phase of Larwill's art career that included the launch of a monograph on his work in 1999.

In 2010, a selection of Larwill’s recent paintings was also shown in Singapore when he and friend Mark Schaller were invited to participate in a joint exhibition "Art is Long".

This exhibition, entitled "Ten years on", revealed the breadth and considered nature of Larwill's mature oeuvre, and showed a diverse range of works that included paintings and drawings.

The work refers to a well-known fun park in inner-city St Kilda that had attracted figurative artists that Larwill greatly admired.

A voracious reader of the stories of seafarers and pirates, elements of the local environment and coastal folklore became important components of his work.

With its strong primitivist inclinations and clear stylistic references to Indigenous art, Shipwrecked combines the style of painting and sculpture Larwill developed subsequent to his time in New York.

The palette of predominantly ochre, red and browns laid down over a bed of white and creams was a combination that features in a number of Larwill’s large works from the late 1990s and early 2000s.