What a week!

Arnold Sultana

Valletta on his mind. Marika Azzopardi encounters the art of Arnold Sultana, currently exhibiting at the Manoel Theatre courtyard

I arrived early for my interview with Arnold Sultana, so I took my time to roam around the numerous paintings which he is presently exhibiting at the Manoel Theatre Courtyard in Valletta. As I looked at the 25 various paintings of the Vallettascape exhibition, I realised that they could not have been displayed in a better location. I was immediately intrigued by the simplicity and the vibrancy of these images of Valletta as seen from the eyes of a man who has lived for a considerable period of his life in The City.

"Valletta was my playground." admitted Mr Sultana when we started chatting about his pictures. As he has been painting for as long as he can remember, practically ever since he was a child, all the memories he has of Valletta were brought into play in this unique collection of paintings. "I was brought up in the Lower Barrakka area." So he is very familiar with the harbour environment and in fact has included two paintings with the harbour for their theme. You can actually feel that whoever painted these scenes actually loves Valletta for what it is – a blend of old and new, vibrant and stoic, a city with a character all of its own. These oil paintings are not simply about scenery. You get very intimate images of the architecture and the locations, the buildings and the events. Then there are also the people. People shopping, walking with umbrellas in the rain, children playing ball, altar boys in the Co-Cathedral, men in a side-street bar. One could say that each picture captures an instant in time – an instant in the life of Valletta.

The artist has admitted that he enjoys playing with the theme of light and shade which are amply provided for in the narrow streets of Valletta. This is very evident also and especially in the picture showing the interior of St John’s Co-Cathedral where shafts of light flow the church’s windows onto the colourful floors below. Most of the paintings have clear blue skies and the occasional picture with overcast sky comes as a surprise. "Malta scenes are perfect for painting, with so much light and the usually bluish sky. It’s true that cloudy days are few and rather far between."

I asked Mr Sultana just how he sets about painting one particular scene. "I choose certain spots which inspire me, or which captivate my imagination. The next step is to photograph the location and this will help me in reproducing the architectural and physical details which are always unique. Then I use my imagination to build up on the general idea."

His favourite picture is actually the one called ‘Merchants Street Market’ which shows a very life-like scenario of a busy market morning on any given day. You can practically hear the shouts of the hawkers and the murmur of the shoppers on the scene.

This is not Arnold Sultana’s first experience at going solo. His last solo exhibition was held way back nine years ago and consisted of 25 paintings of various locations in Malta. But during this time he also had several of his pictures shown in joint exhibitions with other artists. Many of his works are in private collections and in hotels both in Malta and abroad. Does he ever keep his own paintings for himself? Mr Sultana chuckled at this question. "My relatives are always complaining that they do not have a painting of mine." Perhaps this happens because his pictures are so attractive and get quickly spotted at exhibitions. "But I do keep paintings which I particularly like or enjoy painting, for myself." The artist, who admits that he is self-taught, found ample inspiration from artists who were important at the turn of the century such as Caruana Dingli and Cali. He does all his pictures in oils and also enjoys doing still life pictures in the Dutch style. "These are pictures with fruit and flowers, simpler pictures to which I add a touch of my own interpretation. I do a lot of painting, I paint practically every day, especially now that I am retired." He would not elaborate on his previous occupation, preferring to focus solely on his artistic accomplishments. All said and done, he did state that he would never feel capable of teaching art to others.

After having seen the pictures, I pointed out that there seemed to be many elderly people in these paintings and very few children. "There are in fact not many children around these days. And you do see many elderly in the gardens, doing their shopping, walking through Valletta. Elderly people and tourists." And I felt that in a way Arnold Sultana tried to capture these moments with pictures of people who still remember Valletta the way it once was, with its old traditions and its old rituals. Traditions which although Malta is becoming increasingly modernised, cannot die in a city which was built by the Knights and which was modelled to be unique and with the sole intent of making living within it thoroughly enjoyable.

What is his next project? "That I think, is already clear in my mind; I want to feature the sea in my next collection. Although Malta is surrounded by sea, I’ve never featured it much in my paintings. The sea and fishing villages. I have not done much of that." And although we have all seen many scenes with the sea and the fishing villages as their theme, I am very certain that Arnold Sultana will provide us with a totally different, human and curious eyeview of what he decides to paint. He admitted that his art has changed, whereby change occurred unintentionally. "We change without knowing, the more I mature, the more my style becomes pronounced."