Portrait, plein air painting and the life class form the natural habitat for Madeleine Gera, Martine Busuttil Rigaud, Marika Borg, Ray Micallef and Paul Farrugia, five painters that make up The Orange Lizards, who are firmly committed to painting within the realist tradition.

Their latest exhibition entitled MMMRP opens to the public today at the German Maltese Circle in Valletta.

The artists may be diverse in their chosen subjects, but they are all firmly committed to academic drawing.

Recently back from a portrait workshop at The Angel Academy in Florence, Farrugia received his training at Madeleine Gera’s Valletta Studio. His preferred medium is oil while his predilection is for portraits although he also depicts still life and landscapes.

Micallef’s verve is witnessed in his fresh alla prima portraits, nudes and landscapes. His painterly approach reinvents the language of Maltese landscape painting.

Busuttil Rigaud underwent her artistic formation in Paris and has had several exhibitions both locally and overseas. She has actively participated in art groups in France since 1974.

Borg is an experienced and versatile artist whose skill can be seen in both her portraits and plein air painting.

Well-established Gera received her artistic training in Malta under the late Joseph Briffa and proceeded to Florence with a long-term scholarship. Her portraits can be found in public and private collections in Malta and overseas. She recently exhibited a painting of a severed head with Architecture Project’s Cabinet of Curiosities at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2016, Reporting from the Front.

Together, the Orange Lizards’ MMMRP exhibition is also a public collective stand in favour of the environment and its flora and fauna, towards the preservation of Maltese countryside.

 

■  The exhibition is open to the  public from today to October 7 at the German Maltese Circle in St Christopher Street, Valletta, from 9am to 5pm. It will also be open throughout the Notte Bianca activities taking place tomorrow.

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