The sketchbook project

Patrick Scicluna will be exhibiting a collection of his pieces in Geneva at the end of this month, an honour extended by the United Nations. He discusses art, inspiration and Switzerland with Rachel Agius.

“Art is everywhere and all the time,” Patrick Scicluna explains, over a cup of tea in his studio, with the smell of paper and paint heavy in the air.

Scicluna always carries sketchbooks with him, using every opportunity to capture one moment of emotion, magic or movement. To those just starting out, Scicluna extols the merits of trying and trying again.

“There is no wrong way to create art,” he says, “but there is a distinction between discipline and creativity.” He learnt discipline partly through his tutors and partly through his own experimentation.

How deeply have those artists affected his own style? “I do not see their style in mine, although they went a long way in shaping it. Learning to paint or draw or sculpt is after all not about copying the style of another but mastering the practical techniques in order to discover and improve one’s own.”

His artistic education includes tuition under such accomplished local talent as Ray Pitre’ and Anton Calleja and he has had pieces shown in a number of exhibitions.

But, he says, the most important element of mastering an art is practice, a fearless attitude towards challenging subjects and a willingness to experiment.

As a case in point, he shows me a small canvas, no bigger than your average magazine page, which is almost identical to the large piece hanging above the mantelpiece in the living room.

“I made this to play with the lighting I wanted to use for this particular subject. In fact you can see the finished canvas has sharper lighting with more contrast”.

The focus on contrast is evident in all of Scicluna’s work. He professes a passion for what he calls ‘clean colours’, giving his paintings a boldness and clarity that offers a striking first appearance and hides subtler forms beneath it, visible on closer inspection.

The visually startling abstracts, with their streaks of colour and movement, are counterbalanced by moody figure studies, swathed in intense backgrounds that draw the eye to both the subject and its confines, the boundaries of a room.

The exhibition, to be held at the end of the month, is titled ‘Changing Rooms’ and is intended to be a dialogue about the harsh realities facing the world today, including war, poverty and hunger. The exhibition ends on a more uplifting note, channelling diversity into strength and unity in the final ‘room’.

As I’m given a guided tour of Scicluna’s studio and living room, where most of his artwork resides, I do not feel that restrictive element some artists inadvertently incorporate into their work by meticulously presenting the viewer with scrupulous detail and an entirely unambiguous subject.

Scicluna’s work allows for a journey which begins with the artwork and progresses with the viewer. A cursory glance at the canvas offers appealing technique and brave colours.

If you’re in a hurry, this will do nicely. But if, as you should, have more time, the canvas reveals tiny details, as small as a change in brushstroke or a carefully concealed shape, completely changing the image in ways restricted only by the imagination. The result is a kind of incomplete visual narrative, with the viewer filling in the blanks and making the artwork a projection of both artist and audience creativity.

“The exhibition in Geneva is an amazing opportunity,” Scicluna says. A call for applications was issued and Scicluna had expressed his interest. Being chosen to exhibit in such a prestigious location and by so prominent an entity is a very colourful feather in the artist’s cap.

“I couldn’t have done it without the support I received from friends as well as businesses,” he says. The paintings need to be carefully transported to Switzerland and Scicluna himself will be staying in Geneva for the duration of the exhibition.

In a sentiment not unfamiliar to Malta, Scicluna says the official administrative aspects of this exhibition could have been handled better but he is immensely grateful to his sponsors who came through for him.

The run-up to the exhibition has been tiring, with Scicluna having to balance his day job with completing some of the pieces. The pressure, he says, is both a nuisance and a challenge, motivating him and giving him a new energy to work off of.

A glance around tells me that the time constraints have had no discernable impact on the messages hidden within his work, whispers of sensuality, chaos, the sinister, the innocent and ultimately, the captivating.

‘Changing Rooms’ will be on display at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, from Thursday to April 8.