Pop up and see me if you can, or make an appointment for a convenient time.... 
           Meanwhile, Hoppy Easter!!

For directions - just send me a message through the contact form - click the 'button' above :-)

  I have been REALLY busy lately getting my two new websites up and running....   They still have a lot more to go into them but at least they are off the ground now and I can 'play' with them. The first one is The Wisestones of Malta and it shows all (or it will do, anyway) the work I have done in the prehistoric Temples of Malta.They have fascinated me ever since I first came to live in Malta, and I have had several exhibitions on the subject. I find them endlessly inspiring - for me, they echo with the memories of ancient wisdom. They date back to a time before the pyramids, when a matriarchal society lived in peace with the environment and each other. No weaponry was found among the ruins, and also very little evidence of habitation, so the mystery remains; why is tiny Malta littered with so many Temples? Painting always helps me to slip into an altered state, and I think that connection channels into the work I do there.

 I have been feeling the need to reconnect with the subject in a new way for some time now, adding new experiences and inspirations.....  
  

...... and in the meantime, a bit of fun! I find that when I am working on things like landscapes (which I have been doing for a while now in preparation for my exhibition in May) I have to stop myself from getting too 'picky'. A good antidote is to stop and do something completely different, and as I have many, many sketches from live models in the studio, I have been working them up in as loose a fashion as possible. 
    Getting away from the full-colour landscapes, I have worked in monochrome - ink, charcoal, paint...  and then I thought that if I could do fifty it would make a great collection!
   So the new website
Fifty Shades of Grey Nudes is charting my progress - I have just put the 20th painting on there!

   Check them out and let me know what you think!!

Classes at Sistina are starting again!!

It will be lovely to be back at Sistina Art Shop, 118 The Strand Sliema again! 

Classes begin on Wednesday 13th February at 10am til 12.30pm
      We'll be doing drawing exercises and explorations into different ways of approaching picture-making, covering everything from tone to perspective to colour mixing..... we'll work mainly in watercolours, but mixed media and Other Stuff usually appear too!
     Places are limited, so please email me on [email protected] for more info and a booking form

Creativity Workshops in Manikata
   Classes will resume on February 17th
in the usual format of an hour of focused drawing practice followed by creative exercises in different media.
   120 e for 6 classes, 23 e for drop-in classes, 28 e including all materials.
   
Please email me on [email protected] for more info and a booking form

Japanese Calligraphy Workshop

Saturday 23rd February 2013  10am (sharp) - 4pm
Only 45 euro including all materials  -  and a vegetarian Japanese lunch!

A fun day with Anne Hoshi Furuya, the talented daughter of a professional Japanese calligraphy teacher in Japan.

 Using authentic equipment, we will learn : -

*how to write our own names in Japanese characters
*make a lucky New Year card using traditional methods
* a little origami

Please wear suitable clothes (ink stains!) or bring an apron.
The workshop will take place in Jeni Caruana's studio in Manikata. 

PLACES ARE LIMITED AND CAN ONLY BE RESERVED AGAINST PAYMENT IN FULL.
   Please email me on [email protected] for more info and a booking form

  
... so here I am, all fattened up after spending Christmas and New Year in the UK with my family. It's been great, doing nothing much but being with the Ones I Love.

     I did spend a day wandering around London seeing as many exhibitions and galleries as I possibly could, trying to take mental snapshots and store all the images for future reference. I find that's better than taking actual photos sometimes (I had forgotten to pack my camera anyway!) - memories are often better to paint from, and you can't be accused of copying! Having said that, I am reading a brilliant little book called "Steal Like An Artist" which says that we should all be 'stealing' (i.e. keeping a record of) everything that appeals to us, so that we can feed it into our own work later. We should keep a 'Swipe File' in a scrapbook or on our pc's to refer to whenever we need a bit of inspiration.This isn't about copying images, but the ideas and thoughts behind them, so our own images are original creations based on whatever we have experienced along the way. I'll be bringing this idea to my students in future!

    Which reminds me of all the things I have to do when I get home to Malta tomorrow - start organising my next First Friday Gallery (Feb 1st), advertise the Japanese Drawing workshop in my studio (Feb 3rd), think about having a Birthday Party (hoorah!), set up some new painting and drawing courses, confirm the dates of my landscape exhibition, which has been postponed because of the election in March, chase somebody that owes me some money :-), cuddle my cats until they squeak (yes I'll do that first!) and then see how my studio has fared without me.....  oh, and try to lose some of this weight!

    So tomorrow it will be farewell to the grey skies of London and HELLO!! to the blue skies of Malta.
From home to home.....