What draws us to look at art?  Is it our awareness to the subject itself, or the specific use of pattern of colour, line, tone, mass and texture? Charles Cassar reviews the present exhibition at art..e Gallery.One's sensibility is immediately twitched as one walks in to view the present exhibition at art..e Gallery of Victoria, Gozo. Titled Buckets full of sand, the exhibition features a series of paintings by Maria Cassar, who incidentally is also the owner of the gallery. The works on show impart an indelible notion of freshness and spontaneity. Each painting represents a moment of beauty that sidesteps the inner struggles that went into its creation. The canvases are a testament to how the artist looks at young children, and the compositional means and methods that she employs to express herself artistically.  More specifically, each painting is a manifestation of joyful exuberance and youthful innocence.The world of the actual is fashioned in colour and light. Nevertheless, this world of the actual does not fall apart into isolated fragments. Each brushstroke is carefully placed and forceful. Paint is applied in short, almost parallel strokes that have the effect of weaving a sense of textural unity. Every dab of paint is meant to correspond with another, so that a tight, unified whole eventually evolves. This approach helps also to create structural density and an overall colourful impact.Colour has the power to link near and far, hard and soft, coarse and tender. Different hues of complimentary colours defiantly appose each other so as to create a harmonious effect that enhances the focal point of each painting. In some instances the artist opts for a quasi-impressionist handling of the brush that transforms the pictorial space into a homogeneous fabric of paint and chromatic innuendoes of colour and light.Light is vibrantly captured and transmitted, while at times the expression reminds the viewer of the bold eagerness that is linked to Fauvist movement.  The use of colour contrasts (blue, red, violet, green, ochre) not only helps to reproduce this effect of light, but also to bridge the picture surface. Brushstrokes are undisguised, high-keyed and stand independent from one another. At times, Ms Cassar makes good use of the dry brush technique that softens and modulates the chromatic qualities of the background.Compositionally, all the works have equally strong contrasts and same tonal values. Perspective is in some instances rendered empirically while in other works the artist opts to imprint these with a flattened foreground and background.  Cassar emphasises the flat surface by using firm-brushstrokes and strong colours for the background too.  This spatial flatness has the effect of stressing the subject.  There is something of a stage set in the positioning of figure, many times occupying a third of the pictorial space.Maria Cassar's pictures attest longing for perfect beauty, for peace and harmony, for a paradise on earth. There is great poetical vitality in her work. Children feature prominently in nearly all the works. They appear playing, many times on the shoreline. The young creatures possess anecdotal charm and adopt natural tender poses as light strikes their bodies in a rainbow of colours. In two paintings they either sit or stand, gazing as if something perturbed their childhood innocence. Still the thrill of life remains very evident.
The exhibition is on show until 24 April at art..e Gallery, 1 Library Street, Victoria, Gozo. The gallery is open daily from 9.15am till 12.15pm (Sundays included). For further enquiries phone 21557911 or 99840306, or email [email protected].