Rosette Bonello prefers to call her style “informal” rather than abstract.

Jo Dounis is a self-taught, acrylic and mixed media artist with a background in Interior Design.  Born in Malta, she left at the age of eighteen to travel and live abroad, before returning to her homeland eighteen years later.

Her art is abstract or semi-abstract, sometimes with figurative elements and is often painted on non-porous surfaces, like glass, lucite or board, using an enhanced fluid art technique.  Her passion for colour and the way different colours blend, flow and interact together to create organic shapes and designs, is very evident in many of her works, some of which are to be found in private collections in the UK, Dubai, USA, Italy and Malta.

An avid traveller and amateur photographer, she gets her inspiration from colours which she sees in everything around her.

The exhibition of Jo’s work is on until shortly before Christmas, i.e. until 20 December 2020.

I was born and raised just outside Lucerne in Switzerland. In my early years I started drawing with felt pens and ink and later used mainly water colours and occasionally oils. Once I had decided on my professional career my creativity turned to other matters, accomplishing a long and successful career in the financial sector in Switzerland and overseas. Although I never ceased admiring the arts, my artistic endeavours limited themselves to my spare time.

About 8 years ago I found the medium school suited me best and I started using acrylics. In a short time I created a fairly large number of paintings using acrylics, sometimes mixed with paste, gel, sand and other materials. My paintings leave it to the imagination of the viewer to discover shapes, colours, texture and structure. While most of my paintings are mellow and calm, they still show emotions and feelings expressed in bold brush strokes or unexpected colour combinations. I am trying to achieve a certain harmony in my paintings.

In 2014 I re-discovered Malta, having first been here about 20 years ago. I found Marsaskala to be the best place for me, and once I retired from my professional career in Switzerland, I decided to move to Marsaskala and to follow my passion – art in its many different forms – by establishing the art gallery. I have become a permanent resident of Malta in 2020.

A well-established artist, Anna Galea is best known for her large floral and marine watercolours, although she is also very keen on life figure painting and abstractions.  

She has more recently taken to painting large canvases in oils and other mediums in addition to her large expressions in watercolours.

Dividing her time between Malta and Dubai Anna has had numerous exhibitions all over the world, from New York to Europe, from the Middle East to Mauritius, and most recently in Paris at the Carrousel du Louvre and at the Malta Society of Arts in Valletta.

Anna has won several prizes, including Best Watercolour Award (British Residents’ Association) in 1998, the National Art Competition in 2003; the Silver Palette Competition (Malta Society of Arts) in 2002 & 2004.  

Anna has conducted several art demontrations including a Master’s demonstration to members of the International Watercolour Society in Fabriano, Italy (2016) as well as in Dubai (2018). Anna’s paintings have featured in books of the highly acclaimed “International Artist” publishers of USA. Her work can be found in various private collections of connoisseurs, in palaces and museums, banks and offices.

Russian born painter Tanja seriously started portrait painting only in 2013, and clearly she has found her destiny. Faces are her trademark and also her passion.

Her work has an unrivalled quality, the powerful and direct eye contact literally penetrates the viewer whilst the faces show great fragility and deep emotions at the same time.

In contrast to Tanja’s calm and quiet personality, her paintings depict an incredible  power and very often, a face fills the entire canvas and the person’s feelings behind the face are almost tangible. You can see the truthfulness of the saying: The eyes are the mirror of your soul.

Tanja has had exhibitions mainly in Switzerland where she now lives with her family. I discovered Tanja’s work not long ago through friends and have been fascinated by these portraits ever since.

The exhibition of Tanja’s work will be one of the highlights of the 2020 / 2021 schedule, and I look forward to hosting Tanja at Rudy Buhler Art – “The Colour Project”

Margrith was born and grew up in Switzerland where she still lives near Zurich with her family.

Her favourite past time has always been to design, to paint and to model different materials. She studied art and painting in Switzerland and abroad which helped her to start a long and successful career in fashion design.

Margrith uses only acrylic paint, but mixes it with other materials like sand, coal, cardboard, wire, fabric and other structuring material.

Her emotions determine the coulours and the materials she uses to enhance her art work and they all tell a story of her feelings. Depending on her mood she creates abstract or also figurative art, always with her very personal touch. Painting can be a very intimate process for Margrith and she endeavours her art to be experiences and felt by the viewer.

I first met Margrith at a small exhibition in Zurich. It was her totems which captured my attention. As a former fashion designer she has a determined and confident pencil and brush stroke and in a few seconds she is able to create an amazing drawing of a fashion item or a person. Furthermore it is as though the totems, lean and tall, had been waiting for her type of art.

This is, of course, not art you hang on the wall, but rather use fee-standing to give a special artistic feel to a room, a reception area, a shop (especially a fashion shop), or a showroom. What makes these totems special is the fact that they can be viewed from 4 different angles, and each one is different.

Censu spent his working career in Malta at the local drydocks as dock master. Surprisingly he discovered that he had a talent for sculpture. After attending the local School of Art he obtained a diploma in sculpture with distinction. In 2014 he won the Malta Society of Arts National Competition: the overall prize in the painting and sculpture section.

In 2015 he was featured in the New York publication ‘International Contemporary Artists’. Later he was invited to exhibit his work in several European cities and in New York, Florida and California. He produced a series of ceramic sculptures, working with clay and building structures with wire and a mixture of cement and marble powder.

There is a sense of Calatrava’s architectural dynamic flying concrete structures in Censu’s works. They are architectural constructions that intimate a poetic rhythm. There is a fine sense of music in his volumes whether in stucco, stone or ceramics. His vision is quite lyrical.

In stucco the works are light and dynamic with flowing movement; in stone the works are solid and at times heavy; in ceramics vivid colour dominates the structures.

In 2016 he was featured in a Berlin publication called ‘Awarded Art’. The award was in the form of two personal stamps by the German Post Office. Also in 2016 Censu received the Honorary Diploma of the Berliner Art Prize.