Jeni on Drawing 25 Drawing the Line
I believe that art, or at least mark-making, is an innate form of human communication. We have been doing it before we even started to speak. I mean that...
Malta Diary Farewell old friend
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: Malta’s older generations went into solemn mourning with the announcement of the death of the Duke of Edinburgh,...
Malta Diary Food glorious food – a taste of Malta and the Mediterranean
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: My early culinary experiences began 70 years ago when as a four-year-old boy, on Sunday mornings, I would sit...
Jeni on Drawing 22. Hybrid Contemporary Dance event
A while ago, Francesca Tranter, Assistant Lecturer / Dance Practitioner at the University of Malta School of Performing Arts and also the Artistic Director and Choreographer at Contact Dance...
Malta Diary Water, water everywhere – but must have precious drops to drink
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: Wheat for bread and as a basic foodstuff, olives for precious oil for consumption and as a source of fuel to provide...
Jeni on Drawing 19 The Practice of Drawing
The impulse to make marks is as natural to humans as the impulse to talk. As babies,we spend our first year or so making strange sounds, imitating what we hear....
Malta Diary How we the Maltese and Gozitans fill our empty stomachs when we are hungry
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: What satisfies the Maltese and Gozitan palates and fills their stomachs? Forget the nouveau French Cuisine, a few coloured...
Jeni on Drawing 18. Drawing with Help
For many years, it was traditional to study under a ‘master’ artist to learn techniques and basic knowledge. An apprentice would study for years, helping to mix paint and...
Malta Diary Should prostitution be legalised in the Maltese Islands – controversy rages
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: … and when you think you have heard them all, something else crops up that leaves you totally speechless...
Malta’s Mgarr War Shelter. A thought-provoking experience.
Il-Barri, meaning The Bull, was a regular restaurant for us when we used to go to Malta, says Lyn Funnell. I knew that underneath it was a WW2 shelter...
Jeni on Drawing 17. Drawing from a Different Place
I wonder if perhaps because mark-making is such a primal human urge we expect drawing to be ‘easy’ somehow; that it should not demand practice or hard work....
Malta Diary Was Malta ever a part of Sicily? Scientists and geologists say definitely not
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: History has it that before the start of World War II when Benito Mussolini had Italy in his grip,...
Jeni on Drawing 16. The Practice of Drawing
The impulse to make marks is as natural to humans as the impulse to talk. As babies,we spend our first year or so making strange sounds, imitating what we hear....
Malta Diary How green are our valleys in Malta and Gozo?
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: Malta and Gozo are criss-crossed with valleys and ditches but unfortunately, rainwater quickly drains away and deposits eroded and...
Jeni on Drawing 15 Drawing the Line
I believe that art, or at least mark-making, is an innate form of human communication. We have been doing it before we even started to speak. I mean that...
Malta Diary Waste not, want not – Of bread and bread puddings – Maltese style
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: It was this site’s Supremo, Lyn Funnell, who set my mind thinking some years back when she sent...
Drawing on Reality
No matter what training they may have had, all artists are ‘self taught’ to a certain extent. Progress is only made through constant study and practice. There are arguments...
Jeni on Drawing 13 Drawing After
Creativity is best learned by inspiration. By copying drawings we admire, working in the style of someone else, we learn how it feels to move our hands and make...
Malta Diary Ggantija Neolithic Temples – built by a giantess who devoured broad beans and honey?
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: I have heard some strange stories in my life – but this has to be one of the strangest!...
MALTA DIARY: In the darkness of night, the mists of time – mysterious old wives’ tales that people swallowed
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: Some well-known fairy tales dated pre-history and were subsequently and diligently handed down from one generation to another...
Malta Diary A pictorial panorama of the Maltese Islands over the last 200 years
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: My four grandparents died 50, 40 and 30 years ago. I often muse that if they were resurrected today...
Malta Diary Searching for the soul – “the ultimate layer underneath the skin” Ray Piscopo’s paintings of haunting qualities
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: Professor Oliver Friggieri, a Maltese poet, novelist, literary critic and philosopher who relentlessly promoted the Maltese Language, sadly passed away recently on...
Malta Diary The island of Comino – small but with a history during various eras Last week it had a population of three but sadly now down to two
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: The Maltese Archipelago, probably one of the smallest in the world, consists of five islands, Malta, Gozo, Comino, Filfla and St Paul’s...
Malta Diary Good urban planning – or a subterfuge for spirits, humanoids and secret sects? Maybe it was just plain commonsense?
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: The island of Malta is riddled with underground tunnels and the two islands of Malta and Gozo abound with caves,...
Malta Diary A history of plagues and epidemics over many decades – restrictions are endemic in the DNA of the people of the Maltese Islands
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: Yep, Christmas is coming and we should be hearing the tinkling of bells and the rustling of holly and ivy –...
Malta Diary Which country has the largest concentration of windmills in the world?
“Granite jaws that look down on fields of grain and devour them!” ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: In his poem ‘The Windmill’, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote: “Behold! a giant am I!...
Jeni on Drawing 4 – Drawing Around
When you think about it, drawing lines around things is really trying to capture an illusion. There are no lines around anything we see, only edges where one ‘thing’...
Malta Diary Venice in Malta? A Grand Canal Scheme that went awry – and left its unpleasant aftermath
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: How shattering when a grand scheme based on noble aims goes askew and leaves a bitter aftermath that continued to...
Jeni on Drawing 3 Drawing on Past Experience
More years ago than I care to count, when I was doing an art foundation course at Hull Art College, I fell in love with life drawing....
Malta Diary Touches of sanity in today’s eyesore concrete jungle -archaeological sites and buildings now Scheduled and cannot be destroyed or altered in any way
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: I have written it before and repeat, if my great grandparents and grandparents were to be resurrected today and placed anywhere in...
Malta Diary Memories of boyhood fishing days – another pleasure lost to today’s young generation?
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: The sea is never far away in Malta and Gozo and is very much part of the DNA of its...
Malta Diary Notorious characters – fascinating stories – some little-known aspects of shady Maltese characters
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: Every country has its share of notorious characters, Malta no less. I will relate the stories of some of...
MALTA DIARY: TripAdvisor awards high certificate to four Malta military sites – added to a number of previous recognition awards
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: Last year a number of major sites in Malta and Gozo all received a Certificate of Excellence from TripAdvisor...
MALTA DIARY: You can take the Maltese out of fireworks – but you can’t take fireworks out of the Maltese!
Gloom and low morale offset by colour and spectacle ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: August was planned as a bonanza month when in...
Malta Diary. Evidence of Phoenician animal sacrifices found at Tas-Silġ They date back to 1,500 BC
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: As happens time and time again, excavation works on a site had to be stopped after the discovery of...
Malta Diary A pictorial panorama of the Maltese Islands over the last 200 years
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: My four grandparents died 50, 40 and 30 years ago. I often muse that if they were resurrected today and...
Malta Diary Malta and Gozo – a sea of treasures … the Coral Islands
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: From an early age I was a habitual bookworm, reading everything that was readable. Road signs, displayed adverts, street...
Malta Diary What is happening under the seawater surface – now possible to be virtually present to make my dreams come true
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: The sea has always been my magnet from very, very early days. We lived ten minutes walking distance...
Malta Diary The feast of Illuminations ‘L-Imnarja’ – but this time in a lesser light …
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: The 29th of June, date of the feast commemorating Saints Peter and Paul, has been a major event in...
Malta Diary Mob Rule trickles into Malta too – once more idiots come to the fore
ALBERT FENECH e/mail – Facebook: I normally refrain from presenting political situations on this site which is after all dedicated to Travel and Leisure. However,...