Artists Nadege Cassar and Dominic Dimech are putting up an art exhibition which will open on Friday 4 May at 8pm and run until 31 May. The venue will be the GWU Memorial Building, South Street, Valletta.

Here are some comments from the artists themselves about their work:

Dominic Dimech

“My work is more flat and looks like design, very simple, abstract forms where many times even the background is left in its natural state; clean and no shading on it. I like to create clean and clear paintings, with a lot of colours flowing into each other, however most of these paintings are quite varied. I’ve also introduced monochromatic effects to provide a contrast between one painting and another.

“The medium is oils on canvas and acrylics. The style varies as well from figurative and real to imaginary and abstract forms.

“I studied art under Caeser Attard and history of art under EV Borg. During this course, I had the opportunity to visit art museums in Florence and The Netherlands and to get in touch with famous artists to see their work for myself. This helped me to develop more artistically.

“I also attended the Art and Design school in 1995 as well as the School of Arts. After the first year however, I decided to go to Guatemala for one year as a volunteer, where I got even more artistic inspiration. I was surrounded by nature in the villages, mountains and markets which were very colourful with different tropical fruits and artisan crafts.

“My first exhibition goes back to May 2003 at the Artisan centre in Bay Street and recently, Nadege and I exhibited our work at Zarena’s wine bar in Gzira. We have other plans for the future to exhibit with other artists collectively and personally as well. We are also planning to put up an exhibition in another country some day.”

Nadege Cassar

“Since I was a kid, I have always been inclined towards the world of art, and I enjoyed scribbling and doodling with crayons and colours. I was also interested in sewing and needlecraft as patterns and textiles always fascinated me. I learned the basics from family members, who were always willing to encourage me to pursue this talent. In summer, I used to attend children’s courses at De La Salle College, and continued during secondary and Junior College. Later I completed a four-year course at MCAST for the HND in 3D Design. I also had the opportunity to work on a larger scale of art by doing murals for schools. During this period, I discovered the world of design and found I had a natural inclination towards designing jewellery design, especially silversmithing.

“In the future, I plan to create jewellery out of silver and other materials. I also had the opportunity to exhibit some jewellery works together with my course mates at St James Cavalier, as well as some art works at Zarena’s wine bar.

“I work mostly in oils and acrylic on canvas, and most of my art is abstract, semi-abstract and figurative. I have always been inclined to paint the human figure, and the eyes have always held a great fascination for me. I have never been bound by a particular style of art. For me, painting is a state of complete freedom that is relative to mood, and I am a very moody person.

“Thus, even if most of the works differ greatly from one another, I still manage to find a link, which can be the use of warm and vibrant colours, or the particular attention to small details and the style in the blending of colours.

“I can say that I can be inspired by anything, especially organic shapes, but I have to admit that I work in a very unstructured manner.

“I rarely know beforehand the outcome of a piece, and this gives it the twist of personal fun, as I tend to surprise even myself!”