Illustrating our heritage

Norbert Ellul Vincenti, Victor Fenech (Eds): Doris Micallef – Paintings of Malta and Gozo, 164 pp., 136 colour illustrations, hardbound, Dormax Press, 2011. (also available in paperback)

It is a pleasure to leaf through this hardbound volume, which is so obviously a labour of love. The 136 colour illustrations, mainly reproductions of paintings produced by Doris Micallef throughout her multi-faceted career, represent a thorough cross-section that can never be equalled in quantity, quality and variety in a personal exhibition of a particular phase in her life.

Micallef’s work is geometrically mathematical, but her elegance transforms her formal approach into a sentimental and romantic nostalgia- E.V. Borg

Apart from its aestehetic beauty the volume is also quite functional since it can serve the student and researcher to study her career and autobiography.

“Doris has been working on this book for several years now, and the result is an attractive and prestigious publication. This is more of a legacy than anything else,” says her son Michael.

The volume appeals to both locals and foreigners as it illustrates 33 Maltese and Gozitan villages and towns with an accompaning auxiliary map.

Micallef is a great romantic and paints with passion and enthusiasm. Her meticulous, precise and studied approach does not diminish sentiment, drama and poetry.

Never does she want to let go and though she admires the Impressionists, like Cezanne, she prefers to make permanent what is ephemeral and transient. She endeavours to capture the spirit of a place, to create solids in space.

She has an acute understanding of streetscapes, landscapes, townscapes, skylines and countryside with an explicit interest in vegetation and the composition of rocks (see Blue Grotto, p. 120).

Almost all her work is structured, meditative – built diligently stone by stone, brushstroke upon brushstroke, horizontally, in the manner of Pissarro.

Her work is architectural and geometrically mathematical, but her elegance, her feminine delicacy, transform her formal approach into a sentimental and romantic nostalgia, a mellowing softness, a metamorphosis into lyrical poetry, into a dreamy idealism of fantasy and imagination.

A perfect example is Solitude (p. 121), with a shimmer on water, where she dismisses William Cowper’s groan: “O Solitude! Where are the charms/That sages have seen in thy face?” and opts for Alexander Pope’s positive assessment of the happy man who is “Content to breathe his native air/In his own ground”.

Yet Micallef’s philosophy is summed up in the marvellous poem by Francis W. Bourdillon (1852-1921), The Night has a Thousand Eyes, where he concludes that as the light of a bright day dies with the dying sun so the light of a whole life dies when “love is done” or dies.

The paintings by Micallef depend on the light of the sun and her undying love and zest for life.

Some of her best works depict the citadels of Mdina and Gozo: “Days and nights I have walked the streets and bastions of these walled cities which we share with few other lands. I have wondered, What? Who? When? Why? And pondered... this is my country, my heritage. Look how I see it!”

Her national pride, her nostalgia for our past are expressed in Mdina Gate, (p. 43); and three streets: Mesquita (p. 44), St Peter (p. 46) and Bastion (p. 50), my childhood haunt. These works are seeped in atmosphere and the latter in atmospherics.

Perhaps her best Gozitan scene is Bernardo de Opuo Street – Ċittadella (p. 91). “What I see is the result of how the ravages of time have had their way with what has been there and what has been added, and their present transformation.”

This work is quite incredible, with the sun’s light falling on a ruined wall with such intensity that the medieval stones seem to speak history. Each stone seems to be painted individually in the shadow of the Cathedral fabric cast in shade.

I have often waxed lyrical about After the Rain, Main Street, Birkirkara (p. 55) a stupendous rendition of a street in mist after a shower of rain with a reflection of a solitary figure in silhouette pushing a small cart in the middle distance. Limits of Birkirkara (p. 57), in pastel whites and light greys, a balanced, magical and precious composition of cubes in space, accompanied by Rooftop Scene, Msida (p. 60) are probably influenced by Esprit Barthet’s wonderful palette.

Perhaps softer still with shimmering light is Tranquillity, Pretty Bay, Birżebbuġa (p.78).

Also outstanding are The Swell, Dwejra (p. 100) and Azure Window, Dwejra companion pieces, less meticulous and with free and liberal brushstrokes, and the ravishing Il-Loġoġ, Victoria (p. 111) with blinding light behind the arch. Ta’ Kuljat Hill (p. 108) is a delicate and soft watercolour, a bird’s eye view of a hillock with terraced fields and an isolated cemetery.

In The Offering (p. 10), the shimmer of light on the shawl and hood is breathtaking while the mother offers her child like a high priestess with arms raised to the sky.

In Mother and Child – Nadya with Erica (p. 33) the portrait of Nadya (Doris’s daughter) is painted with devotion and love holding her newborn baby.

Micallef (b. 1938) has accomplised so much as a mother and manager of Dormax, the family printing firm, and as a Sunday artist. This volume amply illustrates her career and describes it in detail.

The volume is dedicated in loving memory to her son Clifford, who lost his life tragically while training for Life Cycle.

An exhibition of works by Doris Micallef is being held at the Grand Hotel Excelsior, Floriana, from April 1 to 16.

All proceeds from the sale of a limited edition print of The Breeze, the painting on the book’s cover, will be in aid of building schools in Ethiopia.