Perhaps because drawing, or rather mark-making, is such an inborn human urge and something that all children do, we tend to associate it with a form of play. We see someone working at their easel, squinting at the scene before them, surrounded by paint and paraphernalia and we sigh with envy. What a wonderfully relaxing hobby they have – how lucky they are to just dab paint around and make pictures that sell for small fortunes!
Of course the truth is very different. No-one just picked up a brush and painted amazing pictures straight away – well, maybe Picasso did, but very few others.

“Getting good is hard work; there is a reason why the work ‘painting’ starts with ‘pain’” Clint Watson

Art is hard work, like anything else worth learning to do well. It is the learning, practising, studying and downright slogging that reels you in like an addict. The next painting will always be better. 

Art can be practised at different levels of course. Used as therapy it can be revealing and helpful in releasing buried emotions. As a hobby or pastime it’s a great way to fill time and to socialise, but ambition often creeps in and the amateur artist starts to improve by putting more thought and time into their work. 

Drawing is “a source of happiness and even inner strength not because it is easy but because it is hard” Andrew Marr ‘A Small Book About Drawing’

“You should keep on painting no matter how difficult it is....... unless it kills you, and then you know you have gone too far” Alice Neel

PS - just a reminder that I am still showing a collection of paintings 'Music, Dance and Landscapes' in the beautiful setting of 
Palazzo de Piro, Mdina

As the title suggests, this exhibition shows my work with many different genres of music and dance, plus my recent landscapes

The exhibition is open every day and evening, including Sundays until the end of August. 

I wonder if perhaps because mark-making is such a primal human urge we expect drawing to be ‘easy’ somehow; that it should not demand practice or hard work. Most people really wish that they could draw, but are convinced that they are not ‘gifted’ because they were probably told as children that their attempts at drawing were not good enough (good enough for WHAT? They are expressions, not competitions). Children who find drawing easy seem to be those who naturally see abstract shapes and how they fit together in space. It is more a gift of perception or observation than of drawing, really.

 “Drawing will make you a better person – not morally, necessarily, but it makes you think. It will help you see the hidden patterns all around you, and make you a discriminating lover of landscapes, faces and mundane objects. It becomes an education, which changes your brain as much as learning to play the piano or to dance. It is about striving to become more fully human”  Andrew Marr in ‘A Short Book About Drawing’

You can use the practice of drawing as a form of productive meditation, time for yourself, an interesting way of looking at the world differently and an absorbing search for lines and shapes to describe what you see. It can also be a new way of connecting to your surroundings, helping you to see things that you had never noticed before. The end result is less important than how much you learn, how much you see and how deeply you become absorbed. This alone can be the greatest source of joy, and as you continue the actual drawings will improve, with flashes of insight and leaps of ability.

I often think that the world would be a much more peaceful and pleasant place if only everyone was helped to draw to the best of their ability; we would all ‘see’, feel and experience life in a much less superficial way.

I love to draw with paint at live events, dance and music performances. I usually use acrylic paint on dark backgrounds at night time events. Sometimes I will use pastels or ink.

It takes a huge amount of focus and energy, but the buzz I get from it is, I have realised, addictive.

Looking through my old sketchbooks the other day I found pages and pages of tiny moving figures, and I remembered doing them over 40 years ago. I was working on a college project at the time which featured clowns in strange positions. I had to draw them without models because the poses were impossible, but I wanted the contortions to look as realistic as I could. I had the brainwave of drawing footballers on the TV. This proved to be a fantastic training for drawing moving figures . I learned to capture a mental snapshot and then draw as quickly as possible before the image faded.. 
   I have filled the pages of many books with quick sketches of people ever since.

People usually spend much more time looking at their pencil/pen than the subject. In effect they are always drawing from memory. They get so fascinated with their hand drawing they forget to look properly at the subject at all. One of the exercises I give to my students is to use ‘blind contour drawing’. They have to cover their hand so that they can’t see what it is doing, and draw a three dimensional subject as carefully as they can. At first this feels unbearable, and seems impossible. Even the crazy abstract lines that happen at first have a strange beauty about them though. They are lines of pure seeing – total connection between the eye and hand. The brain can’t interfere and process anything. This is what we are ultimately aiming for in our drawings- pure honest lines that describe what we are seeing.

For the last 20 years I have worked as an artist in Malta. I have exhibited my work regularly, and taught drawing and watercolour in Malta for around 20 years. I tutored painting holidays with Malta Art for about 8 years. I have represented Malta in many countries abroad. But I have only really worked within the Maltese art scene.

I have often gravitated towards other ‘foreign’ artists, perhaps because of their differing methods, artistic education and approaches to their work. I have learnt a lot from working alongside them. I’ve been inspired to try new things, and I hope that I inspired them too. Creativity is reciprocal and inclusive – it cannot grow in a vacuum.

It’s only recently that I have realised how very differently the art worlds operate in Malta and abroad.

I have often gravitated towards other ‘foreign’ artists, perhaps because of their differing methods, artistic education and approaches to their work. I have learnt a lot from working alongside them. I’ve been inspired to try new things, and I hope that I inspired them too. Creativity is reciprocal and inclusive – it cannot grow in a vacuum.

It’s only recently that I have realised how very differently the art worlds operate in Malta and abroad.

A common Maltese attitude was epitomised to me once when someone said ‘why do you teach? You are showing people how to take your work away from you!’ That was many years ago and attitudes have changed somewhat with the advent of the internet. Malta is a very small country though, with limited resources and opportunities. The jealous defence of ‘secrets’ continues in some areas.

This does not make much sense in creative spheres. Unless you are a very talented forger, you cannot paint another person’s paintings. And why would you want to? Forging Picassos or Van Goghs may be financially rewarding until you get caught, but copying anything less famous is hardly worthwhile if you want to exhibit and sell it. It also illegal. As a learning exercise this is a time-honoured way of experiencing different techniques and working methods. As long as the results are titled ‘After*******’ it is quite acceptable. But otherwise?

Creativity cannot be tied down or controlled. The best way to keep it alive is to share it. Like lighting candles from one another, the brilliance of inspiration comes from passing on the flames. Each one is slightly different and unique, but each one contributes to the whole. Once we have learnt the basic techniques and know how to control our medium, then our creative adventures can begin. We can borrow and share ideas, giving them our own individual stamp and pass them on.