Your new works embrace a cooler, more pastel chromatic language. What prompted this shift in tone and atmosphere?

I sometimes feel that when you're faced with a tabula rasa; in my case a blank expanse of white watercolour paper, a similar almost paranormal experience happens and my pencil and my brush create something practically unaided. This is how this collection evolved.... Waving swaying palms in a strong mistral and limpid skies pregnant with rain over exotic Mediterranean gardens dominate but the end result is a whimsical tribute to my favourite genre; watercolour. 

How do you see this evolution in colour reflecting changes in your emotional or artistic landscape?

These changes are hardly ever deliberate... it's the Muse that dictates emotion; colour and form. One perforce evolves all the time... The changes that have happened in my life in the last half century since I took painting seriously have been radical and yet like one's handwriting it's always identifiable. 

Is there a particular moment or memory that inspired this turn toward airier, more transparent washes?

I have always taken 'breaks' from my usual interiors with their Chinese porcelain and Maltese furniture and their meticulous requirements in freer forms so there's nothing radically new about the change. However, all the paintings are fundamentally different and, should I create another collection in the future that collection will be different too. 

These paintings step away from human figures and instead offer a "quiet poetics of place." What drew you to this more contemplative mode?

The Muse. 

My figures if one finds them are distant. I do have a painting called Quod non Ascendit with Daedalus and Icarus inspired by Breughel's take on it. But apart from a man in a hot air balloon the paintings are bereft of human intervention. 

How do you choose the architectural and natural elements that populate your compositions?

Things I love; coastal towers and country churches and balustrades...palm trees and Roman pines... I sometimes hear Ottorino Respighi's Pini di Roma in my head .... And sometimes John Cage's ethereal In a Landscape. 

Do you see these scenes as imagined, remembered, or observed - or a blend of all three?

Music plays such an important part in the creation of these watercolours ... the very title Water Through Which the Dream Flows is taken from a John Adams Violin Concerto. Music and painting are inextricably joined together.  

Your command of transparency is striking. Could you share how you approach layering and light in your watercolour practice?

Decades of practice .... It just happens. 

What role does restraint play in your current technique - how do you know when a painting is "complete"?

With watercolour one extra brushstroke is murder ... Again practice and experience are paramount ... One just knows.

Are there any new materials or methods you've explored in this series?

I am faithful to my traditional watercolour which to me holds endless fascination. 

The Mediterranean light has long been central to your work. How does it manifest differently in this new series?

One paints what one sees and what one feels so I would never be able to paint the Baltic unless I lived there for years and was enamoured of its beauty. 

Do these quieter landscapes reflect a personal or cultural longing for stillness, especially in today's fast-paced world?

Totally.

My paintings are escapes into a world untainted by ugliness ... practically untouched by human intervention apart from a baroque fountain or gate. 

How do you hope viewers will feel when standing before these works?

I hope that their freshness and composition will make them feel happy. Unless a painting speaks to you don't buy it. I love people watching when I have exhibitions. I'm always so relieved when their faces exhude happiness 

Looking back at your earlier figure-filled scenes, how do you feel about this transition toward solitude and serenity?

It's been such a long time that I hardly remember.

I would need to be analyzed as it's such an unconscious decision that one can hardly describe it. It just happens. It's the mental ouija board at work. 

Is this series a pause or a new beginning in your artistic journey?

It's a bus stop on the way to my wanting to create something as flawless as a Bach Fugue. It's trying to attain the unattainable. 

What conversations - visual, emotional, or philosophical - do you hope these paintings will spark?

Happiness ... I always maintain that any art form must be shared to be best enjoyed and appreciated. Music and the visual arts especially. 

It's my overriding philosophy in life. Being generous with one's time and bringing more and more people into my orbit of happiness has always been my aim and the older I become the more urgently I strive to fulfill it and attain it.

Do you have a favourite artist, one who has left a mark on you?

I have always been fascinated by Pablo Picasso. The vast output of all shapes, sizes and descriptions; his constant changes and variations; his totally uncompromising stands whether artistic or political really make him my artistic hero despite the fact that as a man he was obsessively destructive and even toxic. It is in fact this paradox that makes him even more intriguing. 

Many think of Picasso as an abstract artist yet he could draw like an angel and his lines are literally magical. His Vollard Suite for instance which was exhibited in Malta a few years ago is a set of magnificent pen and ink drawings encapsulating love, sex and mythology in a way that one can never imagine. His portraits and his harlequins, his splendid women and his continual quest for innovation make him an artistic hero. 

Strangely enough even as a young boy my father always referred to me as his Picasso so this name was always familiar long before I had ever seen his work!

I wonder what my father, who died when I was nine years old, knew about Picasso in those pre internet days; something which will remain a mystery

Now for some light questions FOR US to get to know you better

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Attending Opera at Covent Garden or the Scala along with my own Valletta Baroque Festival. 

What is your greatest fear?

Not being able to create. Not being able to attend concerts and opera. 

What is your greatest extravagance?

Collecting Chinese porcelain which I find utterly fascinating for its beauty and its history going right back to Marco Polo. 

What is it that you most dislike?

The relentless ruination of this once idyllic archipelago which we call home. The transmogrification into a soulless metropolis indistinguishable from cities created yesterday and the utter disrespect for the past. 

Generally, how do you organise your day?

Not terribly organised if truth be told. However diabetes does require a modicum of order and method to be well controlled and not act like a deadly bucking bronco. I usually paint in the morning after breakfast as I find my mind is at its clearest. I do of course have regular meetings at Festivals Malta in connection with the baroque festival. When I'm not having lunch with friends or having people home to lunch which I love, I usually work on my paintings and prepare myself for a concert or exhibition in the evening. Mezzo TV is on for most of my waking hours. 

Do you have a code that you live by?

Art in all forms epitomizes all that is good and wholesome in the world; a world tragically dominated by war brought on by greed. Art will save the world."

Like a bus stop on the way to something as flawless as a Bach fugue, Kenneth's  new works remind us that art is both journey and gift. In their restraint and radiance, these watercolours become not just paintings, but luminous companions in the pursuit of joy.

Water Through Which the Dream Flows is being curated Prof Charlene Vella and will open until 5 January Phoenicia Malta