Haven't posted in a while - just been so BUSY, getting everything ready for the exhibition..... and of course getting myself in a tizz at the same time!
    But now it's almost ready - paintings are framed, posters, flyers, invites etc are all printed and distributed, the British High Commissioner H E Mr Rob Luke will be inaugurating the whole thing, with an intro by the Mayor of Mellieha....... I'll be glad to just sit down with a glass of wine!
    If you are able to, do pop along to the opening on the 3rd May at 7.30pm (oh and the local children's choir will sing a few songs too!) if not, I will be present from 5pm every day until the 12th. 
    More details are on my Facebook event page  'Landscapes' by Jeni Caruana with a map and all.....
        Phew!!

    What WILL I do when it's all over???
    

   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

     It's Winter in Malta! Most days the sun does come out, and if you can find a sheltered spot it can be lovely, but does get pretty windy and often wet. We need the rains though, as Malta dries up completely from around May to October. I live in one of the most fertile areas of Malta on the edge of a valley with the sea at both ends of it, so we do get some whistling winds here!
    How to paint? I sit in the car with the radio and the heater on, and do little watercolour sketches (this one is about A5) while the Weather washes around me! I did the acrylic painting above afterwards in the studio, using the sketch as loose reference, trying to get the wet and windy atmosphere to howl through it. 
     During the Summer here, there really isn't much variety of Weather - every day is predictably hot, sunny and cloudless, so it's lovely to do something different at this time of year.
     I must go down and do some rough seas next - they really are spectacular.......

       So there I was, in the studio, fighting with a watercolour sketch that I had over-worked, and getting very frustrated with it. I had tried using soft pastels over it, which works sometimes.... but this time it was just getting worse. I liked the design and the idea of it, but it just wasn't coming together. I decided to abandon the watercolour altogether and start again on a dark-toned canvas using acrylics. To keep it simple I thought I'd try using only the three primary colours plus white...... and this is what happened!








      I feel that the result really is splashy and happy - it's a direction I have been moving in for a while, but this painting is a real step into something new. I can't wait to try it again!