Born on the small island of Malta where I still reside, my childhood was spent drawing cartoons and fantasy creatures. After attending art classes from a very young age, I completed a 5 Year Fine Arts Diploma at the Malta School of Arts, from which I hold a Diploma with Distinction in painting.
After participating in various collective exhibitions, I held my first solo exhibition titled IMMAGINA at St James Cavalier in Valletta, Malta in 2006. All the 36 artworks had a connection with the Maltese history or folklore. This was the first Fantasy Art related exhibition in Malta and so it was a bit of stepping in the dark not knowing how the Maltese general public will react to this kind of art. I must say that it was well received and reviewed. My second fantasy art related solo exhibition was called HOTEL BABAW and was held in 2016, at Splendid, Valletta, Malta. The 26 artworks, oils and acrylics on canvas portrayed creatures and beliefs that we find in Maltese folklore that especially in times gone by used to spread fear within the local community. My third exhibition titled GRIM TALES was held in 2019, at Casino Notabile, Rabat, Malta. My mixed media artworks were about the dark origins of fairy tales. My work is both traditional and digital, experimenting with the various traditional mediums as well because I believe that every medium has its own effect and feel to it and it all depends what effect I want to achieve in my artwork while keeping to deadlines. Besides being an illustrator, I have been a senior graphic designer for more than 28 years, working both for print and digital, for leading local advertising agencies. Clients portfolio was varied and have to say that I have worked on very well-known brands and companies, such as Apple Computers (Malta), Bank of Valletta, Vassallo Builders Group, Miller Distributors, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Hyundai, Malta Stock Exchange, AX Holdings, Canon, Enemalta, MCAST, P&O Cruises, Holland America Lines, Tessons, Aquatess Limited, Agenda Bookshops, Plaza Shopping Arcade, S. Rausi Trading Limited, just to name a few. Jobs included branding and corporate identities, packaging, newsletters, books, annual reports, brochures, vehicle wrapping, t-shirt designs, websites and online advertising. You can view my graphic design work in the respective section of this website. In recent months my art and design branched into another form of art, that of tattooing. I am a fully licenced tattoo artist. I find this form of art as an amalgamation of my many years experience both in illustration and in graphic design, because you need a very good, solid background in drawing and a good understanding of design, especially when a tattoo involves typography. For some time I held a position of part-time lecturer in Character Design at the University of Malta. I also had the pleasure to co-organize locally workshops on Character Design and Illustration, with a very well known established international artist and have participated in workshops abroad on these subjects and on Figure Drawing. Have to say that I am also heavily involved in the Malta comic scene and used to form part of The Malta Comic Con organising team. I have self-produced and published three comic books so far, The Tsar written by Joseph P. Farrugia and two issues of Hal Mudlam, a horror comic book series, written and illustrated by myself. |