There is a sense of severely understated ardour in the works of Robert Galea which come together under the apparently quizzical umbrella title of Xanthion. This ancient Greek word for a colour that ranges from a red-gold to a yellow-gold but certainly a rusty earthy colour of passionate undertones, has been adopted by Galea to describe an intimate atmospheric relationship with a scenic capsule called Bingemma.

Xanthion is a collection of just 15 paintings that move on from where the artist left off in his last exhibition held in 2008. Galea, a member of the Schembri Bonaci Bingemma Group, had determinately stuck to a sun-kissed yet muted colour palette that brought to fruition an observational exercise based on the vicinities of Bingemma Chapel. Using one of his larger 2008 paintings to kick-start his train of fresh thought towards Xanthion, Galea’s work has morphed into a situation wherein colour is parsimoniously meted out in what he describes as ‘a compression of light’.

The artist is still wound up in an umbilical cord that forces him to remember and regurgitate the basic ideas gleaned from his outdoor experiences in the Bingemma whereabouts, yet, this time, the hide and seek with location is no more and what you and I can see is a vague atmospheric hint of a distant landscape that could belong to Malta and to just about anywhere else. It is not about location this time, it is about light or the absence of it.

Here comes the interesting part. In his mind’s eye, the artist is still visualising his past muse, but slowly, very very slowly, he is trying to break free. This he does by renouncing all shape and form, teasingly leaving the door ajar to what could happen if he eventually abandoned Bingemma completely. He is starting to flit onto other flowers, yet tentatively so, as two paintings evidently show a distant tower perched on a horizon. And finally, as all good students eventually do, he succumbs to the temptation of defying his master – his white on white exercise in landscape brings back to mind Schembri Bonaci’s exhibition ‘A White Chapel for a White Dance’ held at the Fine Arts way back in November 2007. Yet, while the white canvas stands out in absent-minded relief against two prominently dark paintings, Galea makes his own mark as he retains the golden streak that delineates the horizon, just to prove his point within this white expanse of textured landscape.

Technically engaging, Galea’s paintings are surprisingly created in oils, mostly on panels and are rendered sublimely smooth and free of brush strokes. The exhibition is overall satisfying and offers fodder for the art lovers keen on observational musing and for the philosphically-minded keen on deciphering the wheres and wherefores of Galea’s use of paint. You can read these gashes of colours as you deem best – over-riding passion, volcanic energy, other-worldly sunsets, humble awe of the universe and an innovative take at landscape painting. Whatever road you take, it will certainly not be uneventful. In a silent concerted effort, these atmospheric exercises keep insisting that bleakness is no more.

Xanthion – exhibition of works by Robert Galea – on show at until 2 August at Heritage Malta, lower Merchants Street, Valletta. Open 09.00 - 16.00.