Visions of Light is your fourth personal exhibition. What is the general theme running through it and how does it relate to themes explored in your previous exhibitions?

My fourth personal exhibition of paintings revolves around the concept of light: hence the title Visions of Light. Light has always been an important element in my work, especially since the Recent Insights collection (in January 2004, with works produced in 2003) which revolved around landscapes and in which I started using “veils” of colour, in the form of glazes, to achieve certain compositional and chromatic effects. That idea eventually continued in the collection of abstract paintings presented at St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity in Valletta in October 2004.

The present collection is the immediate follow-up to that collection, even though there is a neat break. The earlier works were, first of all, individually titled; they were more reflections of specific thoughts and situations in my life; a particular meaning – at times very autobiographical – was attached to each and every painting. Now, there is one common denominator that runs through all the exhibits, and for that particular reason, this exhibition is more “homogeneous” than the previous one. Light was already there, but it was latent and disguised – especially through the use of the leitmotif of the grid, which was still a hangover from the earlier exhibitions, from the cubist phase that ushered in my first personal exhibition (Analytical Forms, 2000).

In what way does this exhibition break new ground for you?

Now I am painting more for art’s sake, and therefore these paintings show greater ease and confidence. Some of them are momentary “attacks”, other works are planned and carefully structured. The palette has opened up from the darker tones to bolder and brighter chromatic effects.

Why do you paint abstract paintings as opposed to a representational style?

Abstraction for me came about in a natural way. It was not forced or because I decided that I really wanted to become abstract. It was the natural evolution of my art. In fact, I really believe that abstraction should be the result of development and research, and that any artist should first ground himself very well academically. One has to know the rules before breaking them; this has been proven in various extremely important moments throughout the history of art.

This line of development – from a representational to an abstract artist – is very clear in those of my works that have been presented since my first one-man exhibition in 2000. The collection of works presented at the Gozo Ministry in 2000 (my first personal exhibition) concentrated on figures and still-lifes, which were analysed for their forms and shapes. In fact, the exhibition was entitled: Analytical Forms. Then I turned my interest to the natural surroundings, even though I hate to refer to the landscapes as mere landscapes – I am not interested in topography, but rather in the effect, in the shapes, in the colours that it generates and transmits. I am basically interested in colour, in light and the interpretation of the world around me. That is why I called the exhibition in 2004 Recent Insights – they were insights into the natural (or man-made) environment, whether Maltese or foreign (in that collection I also had some views of Normandy in France). Light was also equally present.

And that brings us to the abstract works. I turned abstract gradually – I started abstracting and ended up in abstraction. In fact, in the 2003/04 abstracts there were many elements connected with the earlier works, and viewing the earlier works with hindsight, there are many elements that look forward to what I achieved later on. Now the works are quite different. I am being more direct. Light and colour are the vehicles through which I express myself.

How does your life figure in your paintings?

The present collection is not really a reflection of my life, but I admit that all art is the result of the artist’s different moods and the particular situations in which he finds himself. This is particularly true in abstract art, which is intimately tied in with the emotions of the artist. For this reason, I consider it more spiritual and a purer type of art. Contrary to what many people think, good abstract art is certainly more difficult to achieve than representational art – because the artist has nothing concrete to which to refer and therefore cannot “hide” under the guise of a figure, a face, or a landscape.

How important are notions like experimentation and relevance for you?

The fact that my last two personal exhibitions have concentrated on abstract painting does not necessarily mean that I will remain like this. Art is an eternal voyage, and those who say they have reached their goal are not really artists. A real artist continually regenerates his art. When art becomes stagnated, it cannot be called art anymore. In this spirit, an artist has to remain like a student, always eager to move on and seek other possibilities.

I have a great interest in other aspects of art, especially in the way contemporary art can be used to reinterpret and re-dimension established genres or themes. I strongly believe that art has to reflect its times in order to be genuine. Therefore, even established themes like landscape, figures, portraits and sacred art have to be interpreted through the eyes of an artist who is living in the 21st century, otherwise we are not being true to ourselves. Recent works that I have produced confirm this notion.

How did you decide to become an artist and what obstacles did you have to overcome?

Being the son of an artist was in itself a great advantage, because I had the opportunity of growing up in an artistic environment from when I was a baby. My father is an established artist, working mostly as a decorator in the traditional Baroque idiom, and as a boy I used to accompany him on various decoration projects in local churches, especially on Gozo. Technically, I also learnt a lot: the exposure to oil painting and other techniques came very early on in my childhood and as a teenager I also helped my father on various works.

As a young boy I drew inspiration from what I saw around me in churches and as a result I have bundles of childhood drawings of angels and saints. My father was a student of important Maltese artists such as Giuseppe Briffa and Giuseppe Galea, and I still remember going with him to Birkirkara and Rabat in Malta to visit these artists. This, of course, brought me into close proximity with art and I was taught to appreciate art and culture from a very young age.

Many people ask me how and why I chose to become an artist, but I think there was no other way for me. However, until that time, when I was in my late teens, before my studies at University, I was still tied up with conventional modes of art. Art in Gozo remains overwhelmingly conditioned by the traditional bias and that, I think, was one of the greatest stumbling blocks that I had to overcome.

How did the move from traditional art to a more modern style come about?

It was through my undergraduate studies at the University of Malta, my attendance at the Malta Government School of Art in Valletta, the contacts that I established in Malta with artists and scholars and my travels abroad, especially to museums during this period (the late 1990s) that I started opening up to modern art. During that period, my art took an unexpected turn. My studies of important 20th century artists made me realise that I was missing out on something really important. I was particularly taken up with the Cubists, and this idea was very clear in my first personal exhibition. The present state of my art all started from there – that was my breakthrough and since then I have never looked back.

Where is your art heading? Do you have any future projects?

Today my life is entirely taken up with art, its study and its teaching. Without art, I wouldn’t live. My life in art is multi-faceted. The most important component remains creating. However, then there is teaching art at the Junior Lyceum in Gozo, lecturing on art history at the University of Malta, researching and writing. The love for art that was instilled in me from a very young age led me to study the History of Art in depth. With regard to research on Maltese Art, I have concentrated on the decorative arts – it is a subject that, up until then, had received no scholarly attention in Malta, and it is among the most fertile grounds for artistic production in Malta over the ages.

In this way, my research has contributed considerably to the emerging picture in this field. I have also unearthed very important information on Maltese artists like Pietro Paolo Azzopardi, Antonio Sciortino, Francesco Saverio Sciortino and Emanuele Buhagiar, among others. I feel that, in the role of artist and art historian, I can help do justice to the works of these artists that at times are in danger of falling into oblivion.

What I would really like, however, is to have more time to dedicate to the production of art and research.

Visions of Light will run until 29 April at Vee Gee Bee Art Gallery in Valletta and from 5 to 26 May at the art..e gallery in Victoria, Gozo.

Valletta opening hours are from 9am to 1pm and from 4pm to 7pm, Mondays to Fridays, and 9am to 1pm on Saturdays.

Opening hours in Gozo are from 9am to 12 noon every day and from 5pm to 7pm on Fridays.