Accidental artists

Even buskers are feeling the recession and those stopping in their tracks along Valletta's Republic Street to buy the CD of the Famous Unknowns are waiting for change from €10 but they won't get any!

Last year, their CDs cost €15 and they sold a "phenomenal" amount, so much so that the exact figure remains undisclosed.

Even shop owners have not been as forthcoming as last year when it came to lending them electricity, they point out.

"They've become less friendly and more defensive and territorial; they see us as a distraction to their clients...

"This is the recession, according to buskers," say Carlos Vamos and Lindsay Buckland on their second visit to Malta following an invitation to Notte Bianca last October.

Nevertheless, the Famous Unknowns have a permit to play in the capital and are planning to use it... whether or not people wait in vain for change!

And the financial crisis is not the reason why both multi-talented musicians have turned their focus onto art - not that the real version of their story is any less humorous.

"We played at the Tourism Ministry last year and they invited us back. We said we'd only return if they let us put up an art exhibition. They agreed. The only problem is that we had never painted in our lives."

But it did not stop the pair from taking on the challenge and returning with 90 works, now hanging in the corridors of the Auberge d'Italie, following a crash course in art.

"It's not like we've trained over the years; my art is based on feeling and intuition," Mr Vamos explains.

The musicians rapidly metamorphosed into self-taught artists, admittedly maybe at the expense of their music. They are performing at the beach party at Golden Sands on Sunday, part of the Malta Music Week in the run-up to the Isle of MTV concert on Wednesday.

They may not be presenting anything too new because, although they have a new album, they have not had time to practice. But their music - the result of a tricky technique called tapping - remains catchy, innovative and mind-altering.

"Anyway, we figured it would be better to make five mistakes and have 100 pieces of art than no mistakes and no art," they say, with their trademark frankness and sense of humour.

That, in a sense, runs through their art too.

Mr Buckland's pop art sees another perspective of the iconic M of McDonald's as he turns into an E; and Che Guevera, who has become a commercial icon, sporting a Nike logo on his cap.

He explains in all seriousness that The Day I Dreamed I Was A Woman was based on a picture he had seen of an old African man with elephantiasis in his genitals. Morgue-Aged sees a man and a woman covered in an apartment block, showing how "we are ruled by the buildings we live in".

Although his works all have a twist, Mr Vamos is dead serious when he says that Maltese artist Antoine Camilleri is way up there with Picasso and Van Gogh. He pays tribute to "the world's top three" in his art.

Mr Vamos was first introduced to Mr Camilleri's work last year, bought a book, made contact with his son, returned twice to buy some of his original drawings and a painting... and became a painter himself since.

"He is an amazing artist; there is so much emotion in his art. He was my inspiration.

"I think you can't just be invited to exhibit in a country and not do anything that is related to its culture." Hence, the tribute to Camilleri and Caravaggio - all rolled into one.

In his version of St Jerome, Mr Camilleri is the subject and the items depicted in the painting - a cross, a skull and a flame - are in the artist's style; in the Beheading of St John, Mr Camilleri is in the window...

Another work includes a watercolour by Edwin Galea, which he painted over in purple, Mr Camilleri's favourite colour. Under it is a statue he found that "resembles" Mr Camilleri. It is carrying a paintbrush and a tube of purple paint.

"I wanted to ruin it," he said bluntly. "These watercolours have become more like souvenirs and are not looked at seriously."

His painting of Valletta under a Van Gogh sky was snapped up and he has high hopes it will be hung beside the Caravaggio in St John's Co-Cathedral. He is joking, of course. The buskers-turned-artists never take themselves too seriously...

In Mr Vamos's tribute to Van Gogh, he copies his last painting before he shot himself, but includes a little man carrying a gun.

Van Gogh had intended to paint a series of 12 sunflowers in a vase but he died after the seventh. Mr Vamos made it, although he was scared to leave the house when he got to the eighth. Most are his own version and colours but the copy of the original costs €750 and is even signed "Vincent".

He doesn't think the price is too steep. "Well, the original would cost €80 million if you could get your hands on it! At least this is accessible."

The paintings are not expensive, they stress. Some only cost €100 and it's not because of the recession. After all, the Famous Unknowns are not famous artists, they admit.