Maltese artist in US publication

Recognition tops the list of priorities for most artists. Becoming well known on your home ground is one thing, getting international coverage is quite another.

For Anna Galea, 47, recognition has come in the form of having two watercolours featured in the series of books How Did You Paint That? The publications are used as visual aids for budding artists.

The series offers "tips, inspiration and instruction in all mediums". Published in the US, it features artists from all over the world but particularly from the US and Canada. The series is distributed worldwide.

One of the watercolours called Cyclamen, by Ms Galea, was included in How Did You Paint That? 100 Ways To Paint Flowers & Gardens Volume 1.

As the name implies, the book includes the works of 100 artists who explain how they were inspired to compose their painting, how they went about painting it and what materials they used.

For her Cyclamen watercolour, Ms Galea notes that a cyclamen she bought fascinated her by the vibrancy of its colour, the shape of the petals and the pattern on the leaves.

Ms Galea describes what led her to paint the cyclamen the way she did it: "The flowers were so exciting by themselves, I left the background as abstract washes of complementary colour".

The other watercolour was reproduced in How Did You Paint That? 100 Ways To Paint Favourite Subjects, Volume 1.

For this watercolour, labelled Away From It All, Ms Galea said she wanted to present the serenity and stillness one associates with a refuge in a garden inundated by the brilliant hues and shapes of flowers.

This is how she details her mindset at the time: "I had to plan the painting like a chess game and anticipate how each step would affect the other".

Ms Galea, a seasoned watercolourist, has had three solo exhibitions locally and several collectives and won the Best Watercolour Award in 1998 organised by the British Residents Association in aid of the Hospice Movement.

In 2002, she was awarded first prize in the watercolour section of the Silver Palette competition organised by the Malta Soceity of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce and in 2003 netted the first prize in a national art competition organised by the same society.