United in abstract colours

Female collaborations may not be the easiest but abstract artists, Anna Miggiani and Anne Cassar, defying the adage, have joined forces and pushed each other to mount an art exhibition together.

Two Faces: One Vision, says it all.

Ms Miggiani is a pharmacist and Ms Cassar a clinical psychologist, but their medium and concepts are the same.

Their collaboration started from a friendship and has comfortably entered the sphere of art.

"You do not find too many artists who do abstract work; we share the same medium, we talk and we understand each other."

Over time, both have hovered in and out of the art scene. Ms Miggiani had got involved in Lifecycle, raising funds for the hospital's renal unit, when, ironically, she fell ill and lost a kidney.

"That made me realise what is more important in life... There was a void when I was not painting."

Ms Cassar has turned her art into part of family life. She paints with her children and their kitchen is a workshop. "There is paint is all over the house and I sleep and wake up with it!"

While Ms Miggiani starts with colour and lets it flow and lead the way, with nothing specific in mind, Ms Cassar confines her colours to shapes and borders. That is where the difference between the friends lies.

They both admit, however, that there is little appreciation for their type of art and that they are often asked blankly: What is it? The answer: "It is an emotional response for me... You either like it, or you don't," says Ms Miggiani.

Ms Cassar finds that those who are more visual would attune to the colours while others could find it too much.

Nevertheless, they believe "you can learn to like it". Ms Miggiani's worst critic was her husband, who just could not understand her art because he was not exposed to it. "Now he is coordinating the exhibition," she said.

That meant hanging 51 works in acrylics, the proceeds of which are destined to the St Rita children's home in Tarxien, which is run by the Ursuline Sisters.

The exhibition, at the Tourism Ministry in Valletta, runs until Thursday.