Five artists are presenting their works in an exhibition, entitled Amalgam, at the Cavalieri Hotel, St Julian’s. This unusual collective exhibition of hand-painted furniture and paintings is organised by the Willow Tree Group led by Charlotte Dimech and Gina Ficur, whose works are featured along with others by Adrian Camilleri, Cecile Pinto and Biba Popov.

Popova’s execution on canvas demonstrates her free spirit and her hedonistic flight through time and space- E.V. Borg

Dimech and Ficur both present hand-painted furniture. The former’s work is easily recognisable from the standard floral and vegetable motifs painted in a naïve style. The velvety character of the artist is conveyed in inimitable, psychedelic, vibrant and hedonistic colours.

Dimech’s typical decoration is quite distinct as she uses a bestiary of marvellous creatures such as butterflies and swallows and landscapes in vivid and splendid colours. Olivia, a cubic modern chest in torquoise, decorated with sensual flowers, is typical of her Vexpression.

Ficur, who hails from Serbia, has an essentially Eastern European style that echoes her traditional and folkloristic indigenous culture. Her best work is probably a coffer painted in a rich Indian red with embossed carvings in silver. A frieze running round the top edge or cornice forms a striking garland or repeated geometric module.

Magic Carpet (the coffer) is in contrast to Queen of Hearts, a quaint coffee table with a surface bearing a narrative reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland, accompanied by a rabbit and a magic castle framed among vegetation in an open window.

Camilleri, in a romantic, sentimental and lyrical strain, paints idyllic haunts that resonate in their tranquillity and serenity.

In his almost monochromatic works he creates atmosphere and mood and a nostalgia for quaint enclaves where time has stopped, inspired by old thumb-soiled postcards in sepia as if covered in dust. Storm over St Angelo and Sunset are redolent with romanticism and a felt atmosphere in a poetic vein which is both sensitive and sensual.

Pinto is inspired by Turner’s abstracted landscapes. Her fluidity in paint and almost monochromatic stance create a precious and rare unity in composition. Spring in a Field is probably the most emotive and expressionist piece of her collection, a delicate and felt work though somewhat emotionally charged in ‘shot’ or iridescent colours amid foaming waves racing each other to shore more in sport than threateningly.

Pinto’s work is so topographical that it reveals her love for nature and geography: stratified compositions of sky, sea and earth. The only scream or deafening noise in the silence she suggests lies in Hunger is like a Lion in a powerful scarlet red. Popova is a professional artist whose work is mythical, visionary and dreamy in a simple but fantastic naïve style. Paper Boat is one of her best pieces while another canvas with an angel holding an enormous precious chalice, framed by old Roman or medieval buildings, like props on a stage, is a work of fantasy. Her execution on canvas demonstrates her free spirit and her hedonistic flight through time and space.

The exhibition is open until August 17. A 24-page colour catalogue is available.