Mosaic artist Paulene Attard is currently exhibiting her works at Torre Dello Standardo, Mdina, every day from 10am to 1pm and from 3pm to 6pm. For her sixth exhibition, entitled “Of hues and textures”, she displays a wide-ranging collection of mosaic items, from furniture to art objects, including decorative mirrors, tables, jugs, bowls, candlesticks and wall hangings. The exhibition closes on Sunday.

Attard’s mosaics are an explosion of colours and forms, mixing modern and traditional style. The great talent of Ms Attard is noticeable enough through her works, yet it becomes more impressive with the knowledge that she learned mosaic alone, just by reading books.

“I experimented by myself and the more I read about it, the more interested I became in mosaic,” she said. “I’ve always been artistic. I started by painting acrylics, but when I discovered mosaics I didn’t want to go back to the painting any more. Mosaic gives me more fulfilment and it’s something more unusual to exhibit. Mosaic has become my passion.”

All her works are original. Ms Attard uses any material she can find, such as seashells or broken porcelain plates. “I work with whatever is available,” she said. Yet, she principally works with different kinds of glass, creating beautiful assemblage of Venetian, stained, iridescent and vitreous glass.

Moreover the gold vitreous glass, as well as the silver leaf glass or the Van Gogh mirror she likes to incorporate in most of her mosaics, give a luxurious aspect to her creations. This kind of material allows her to play with the glints of the light, giving another dimension to the mosaics.

Ms Attard finds her inspiration during the numerous travels around the world. From these trips she also brought different materials to work on her mosaics. She said that her greatest influence is, obviously, the great Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi. She also mentioned the Taj Mahal in India that she visited recently and was amazed by its architecture and use of semi-precious stones.

When she travels, it is the only time she sketches. Usually she starts a piece of work without drawing it before, giving free rein to her imagination. Of course, she is also influenced by the Maltese landscape, especially the sea. Many of her creations call to mind the forms of waves and seaweed. Several of her wall hangings look like aquariums, depicting a full-coloured underwater with some little fishes incorporated in the mosaic.

As she still works, Ms Attard finds time to do her mosaics during her lunch break or in the evening. “I am working all the day in front of a computer and when I come back I like to use the other part of my brain!” The art of creating mosaic is a multi-step process and some works take weeks to be realised, as one needs to shape and cut the materials, to create the design, to glue and joint the various elements and finally, to clean and polish it. And Ms Attard takes great care of her works, choosing herself the frame of her wall hangings. “In each piece there is a part of me, because there is so much contact with this kind of work,” she said. “The most difficult thing to do is to apply the grout and then clean and polish the mosaic. I cut my hands a lot. But all the works I made, gave me a real sense of satisfaction. I am really proud of the result. Mosaic allows you to experiment a lot, that’s what I like about it.”

For more information, please refer to the website: www.mosaicsbypaulene.com.