ON THE NATURE OF PAINTING

The title for this show is an open-ended one, it results from the ambiguity surrounding the term
‘nature’, the latter can also mean, existence, essence, type, character, structure, creation,
environment, world, universe and identity, all of the above could replace the word nature in the
title and still be able to clearly describe what is being investigated.
This body of work is looking at the painting process as an action that behaves, reacts and adapts
just like any other natural instinct. This can be recorded in the way the paint acts on the surface it
is applied to, how it travels from brush to surface and how it responds to aggressive scratching
and layering. Therefore by referring to motifs from nature, the painter recognizes the nature
within him. Working from within, the painter memorizes the profusion found in nature and
reassembles it in a new world of pictorial harmony.
As a result the painter embodies the role of a listener and messenger. Firstly, he surrenders to the
nature of the painting process, he responds to the context surrounding him, he extracts from it
and lastly, through gestures and mark making he rearranges memories into matter. These actions,
reactions and translations constitute the ‘nature of painting’.
Just like any living organism that transmutes energy into plenitude, so does the painting process.
Similarly, the work encapsulates the transfer of energy from lived experience into matter.

Valletta Contemporary, Malta

9th July- 14th August 2021

Photos by Fabrizio Vella