Sicilian artist Edoardo La Francesca, who has made Malta his home, realised, after studying in Italy as a restorer-conservator, that what he really loved most was creating beauty through colours.

He left Trapani and opted for Malta and Gozo because he felt that the history and beauty he encountered here can help him express, from the bottom of his heart, all the sensibility and capacity of his special vocation of an artist.

His artistic vocation is a service of beauty to the Maltese islands, rich in history and the common good. Indeed, the Sicilian artist decided to go deeply in Maltese history to express all the beauty within his heart.

In Malta, he found fertile ground where to create religious paintings for churches. Still, he remains in touch with such great artists as Roberto Ferri and Ruben Belloso Adorna.

Already, various paintings of his, whether of religious or mythological nature or portraits, can be found in Maltese churches, and some are even owned by private collectors. A portrait of Cardinal Mario Grech for the Chapter Hall of Gozo’s cathedral is proof of La Francesca’s expertise.

He has various projects in hand and has just completed a big altarpiece dedicated to the baptism of Christ for the Chiesa di San Giuseppe in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily. It measures 260cm by 160cm and the technique is oil on linen canvas.

The work of art is based on the biblical account and depicts details of the baptism, showing Jesus emerging from the water and the Holy Spirit descending on him.

Behind every profile there is a person and behind every person a story; behind a story a life and behind a life a heart. The beautiful heart is better than 1,000 beautiful faces.

Artists are extraordinary because, through their sensibility, they are able to create. An artist is a person that creates with his hands, with his mind and with his heart.

Artists strive to be themselves in a world that is constantly trying to make us someone else – that is the greatest accomplishment. The German-American poet and novelist Charles Bukowski used to say: “I don’t have time for things that have no soul.”

“None can sense more deeply than you artists, ingenious creators of beauty that you are, something of the pathos with which God at the dawn of creation looked upon the work of His hands,” St John Paul II wrote in a letter to artists.