As language is the home of writers, beauty is the home of artists. Anna Galea, an award-winning internationally renowned local artist, is keenly aware of this. Times of Malta takes a look at what inspires her, as her sequel exhibition Still Stills opens at the Malta Society of Arts. 

Anna Galea is an established artist who has exhibited extensively in Malta, the main capital cities of Europe, in the UAE and also in Washington and New York. She is recognised especially for her vibrant and radiant still-lifes and abstracts. Anna works mainly with her favourite medium, watercolour, but also paints in oils, acrylics, pastels and charcoal. Inspired by nature, she is able to zoom in on it to produce dramatic, semi-abstract works of art. 

Anna, how would you introduce your exhibition STILL STILLS and what it means to you?

“Still Stills is the sequel to my solo exhibition held last year at Opus64 Gallery, called Stills, which also showcased still-life paintings, but in oils. This time still-life is explored through my favourite medium, watercolour, as large scale paintings.

“You know, sometimes you’re going about your daily life and you look at something and it strikes you, your mind takes a photograph of the scene or subject and it sticks in your mind - like a still [shot]. Then once in a while it pops to mind again. That’s how I hope it can be experienced and come across to the viewer.”

The Fig Leaf

What does Still mean to you?

“The name evokes a type of stillness, as in to stop and pause. To be appreciative of the beauty of day-to-day plants and vegetables which we tend to take for granted. Mindfulness also comes to mind.”

Your still-lifes have a particular effect, one that reminds me of what author James Joyce called “aesthetic arrest.”  What inspires you?

“I find inspiration primarily in nature. Like I said before, they are the shots the mind takes, and once in a while revisits. You always go back to what has struck you. I also find inspiration when I visit galleries and exhibitions.  Online too, though I feel so exhilarated and inspired when I visit well-curated exhibitions. I travel quite often and make it a point to make the most of this.”

In your opinion, how are art and the imagination linked?

“Art and imagination are much linked together.   There is craft, and then there is the imagination which transforms craft into art. Each individual has his or her own imagination that processes information in a different way. Imagination in art works both ways -  artists use their own imagination to transform an idea or object into a work of art, and then the viewers use their own imagination and world-view to interpret the work of art. I feel the dialogue between the artwork and the viewer matters - and artworks speak differently to different people.”

Shakespeare wrote that “Art holds up the mirror to nature”. How do you translate your knowledge and information into the artwork?

“With my art I express and emphasise what hits me. I try to research and learn more about the subject I am painting as I feel that the more you know your subject, the more your subconscious brings it out genuinely through your world-view. I am an optimist and I suppose my experience with art could be seen as an escape into the beauty of nature.”

Art to me is what makes life worth living- Anna Galea

Dangling Carrots

What kind of process do you follow once you’ve found a particular image or object?

“First I look up botanical information and other pertinent facts about the plant, and of course, it is important that I have the actual subject I am painting, develop ideas, light it and sketch different compositions and then decide on the way to go. For example, after investigating various compositions for Dangling Carrots, I went to a farmer and when I explained what I needed the carrots for, he actually pulled out a bunch from his field there-and-then, leaves and all, and happily handed them over to me… can’t beat fresher than that! And in these moments, possibly mostly ones that are spontaneous, one often finds that Aha!, that element of recognition and inspiration, and so there was my composition!”

Such a process is almost palpable in your pieces for this exhibition, in the detail that the viewer is presented with.

“I immerse myself in the subjects that inspire me, and dramatise them by zooming in and interpreting them larger than life. I often isolate them from their usual environment. I keep to a theme especially when exhibiting solo, and as still-life to me is so fascinating, it has been a lovely experience working on this exhibition.”

The French artist Antoine Bourdelle once said that “the secret of Art is love… art brings out the grand lines of nature”. What is art to you?

“Art to me is a celebration of life. The late philosopher Sir Roger Scruton, like Bourdelle, argues that art exalts nature, and I very much empathise with this view.”

So would you say that art is fundamental to our lives?

“Art to me is what makes life worth living.”

Is there anything interesting coming up this year you’d like to  share? 

“I am looking forward to exhibiting a series of abstracts at a new gallery in my home town of Marsaskala. I have also been invited to participate in the fourth edition of Art Connects Women 2020 (Dubai) and in the second edition of the Mauritius International Art Fair this summer. Then in October I have been invited to take part in the fifth Internatianal Biennale of Contemporary Art of Argentina.”

Still Stills will run from February 13 - 27 at the Malta Society of Arts, Valletta.