Joseph Casapinta’s passion for watercolour has led to another solo exhibition to be held at VGB Art in Republic Street, Valletta from Friday till May 31.

After his success of solo art exhibitions Casapinta is continuing his artistic journey with more recent work in watercolour.

The Archway

The artist is showing his watercolour paintings in a more subtle mood with townscapes, sea­scapes and countryside scenes with dramatic skies, soothing colours and airy brushstrokes.

These paintings have been made ‘en plein air’, snapshots painted outdoors on location. Frequenting various towns and villages, these outdoor works start off from sketches followed by photographs and other reference material. First, the artist finely draws the essential outlines of the scene in faint pen and ink or pencil and then he applies the liquid beauty of the watercolour medium on his coarsely textured paper.

His acid-free, mould-made papers and the use of high-quality watercolour paints leave the desired effects the artist envisages in his works.

For Casapinta, watercolour is an exciting, expressive and challenging medium, and he strives to maintain in his own work that sense of immediacy and directness which is the essence of the traditional art of watercolour painting.

Very few Maltese artists successfully achieved great recognition abroad in watercolour painting. Casapinta is also steadily making a name as a watercolour painter in other foreign countries.

In most of these paintings, one distinguishes the evocation of a mood, which illustrate a sense of Maltese identity and culture. In Casapinta’s rural, urban and maritime views we see the strong light so typical of our islands. Deep shadows cast by the limestone edifices on the narrow streets which we find in our fortified cities, create dynamic contrasts that only watercolours can offer.

Studies of boats reflecting in water, pale pink and orange skies executed in a translucent, luminous quality, prove that this medium is mostly suitable to capture the movement of the sea and the changes of the sky and the fleeting clouds.

In both subject matter and technique, the artist conveys also a sense of calmness as seen in The Walk, The Archway, Qalet Marku and The Chapel, scenes which are familiar and yet depict a sense of magic.

This collection is an expression of a timeless dream saturated with a collective nostalgia and association with the idea of what is fundamentally ‘Maltese’.