Local artist Lisa Cassar launched her debut solo exhibition, Where I Go to Breathe, at Camilleri Paris Mode in Rabat yesterday morning, unveiling a collection shaped by her search for calm and restoration.

The show brings together a series of vibrant "naturescapes," intimate works that chart her return to the natural world at moments when she most needed grounding. Through saturated colour and fluid brushwork, Cassar evokes both movement and stillness, each piece inspired by a place that supported her healing after a period of turbulence.

Rather than painting broad horizons or sweeping vistas, Cassar focuses on the often-overlooked details of the outdoors: the layered greens of clustered leaves, the shifting geometry of branches, the play of dappled light across dense undergrowth. These close-up studies of local trees, plants, and tangled foliage blur the boundary between realism and abstraction. Leaves dissolve into patterns; branches form rhythmic structures; colour moves in pulses rather than planes.

In a time when the natural world feels increasingly fragile, Cassar feels compelled to pull it closer - to rebuild on canvas the sense of safety it offers her. The result is immersive. Standing before each piece, the viewer is drawn into a fragment of nature that is both familiar and unexpectedly expansive, a reminder that even the smallest corner of the wild contains complexity, shelter, and quiet.

The exhibition grew from Cassar's efforts to reclaim stability during a difficult period. Turning to nature, she found that its intimate forms - the curve of a leaf, the repetition of patterns, the soft interruption of light -offered a kind of meditation. Painting them became an extension of that healing.

Where I Go to Breathe offers viewers that same release: an invitation to slow down, look closely, and find peace in the intricate forms of the natural world.

The exhibition opened on 29 November and is currently on view at Camilleri Paris Mode, Rabat.