Biography

Post address :
84, Parish Priest Hili St., Fontana FNT1012, Gozo, Malta.
Phone number : 00356 21556742
Mob : 00356 7990 4783

GENESIS

I was born in 1965 to Joseph and Filomena in Fontana on the beautiful island of Gozo, where I live.

I began painting making reproductions from old masters’ prints, mostly religious and landscape themes in oil on canvas and acrylic on cloth techniques. Between circa 1981 and 1984 I attended drawing and painting classes at the Art studio of Mgr. Michelangelo Apap (1915-2006) in Xaghra Gozo. Sporadically I also frequented the Art studios of Chev. Paul Camilleri Cauchi and Mr. Joseph Sagona in Victoria Gozo.

Around 1983 I began the “Hayward Veal Oil Painting Course” by correspondence. I never finished this course, but it taught me that everything around us could be seen as a series of juxtaposed blots (macchia). This idea had a lasting impact on me as the blot remained the characteristic constituent element of my paintings.

Between 1988 and 1993 I lived in Rome where I studied Artifact Conservation and Restoration in which I obtained a certificate of attendance from the Istituto Italiano Arte, Artigianato e Restauro and a diploma from the Istituto Centrale del Restauro, benefitting from a scholarship. I also attended lessons in drawing from nude and low relief sculpture at the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato.

In my painting studio in Rome I produced my very first abstract painting around 1991.

My experience in artifact conservation and restoration led to significant developments in my painting evolution as it made me aware of the possibilities offered by the painting support to heighten the artifact’s uniqueness and eloquence. Hence I have to date explored the following concepts :

• my paintings with lacunae in their support (chameleon paintings),
• my paintings with very visible support deformations (abstract canvas sculptures),
• my paintings in which the maximum eloquent potential of a painting is obtained not by hanging it on a wall but by exhibiting it horizontally (the zero coordinates infinite viewpoints series),
• my paintings with writings on the rear of the support and exhibiting them in a way that they can be viewed from the front and the rear thus transforming the artifact from a two dimensional to a three dimensional entity.

My motto is ORA ET COLORA.