Prints

That time of year is again with us. Yes, that time of year where we celebrate with our families, friends and loved ones our core modern value - consumerism! To help you celebrate more, may I remind those of you who don't have a clue what to buy their boss,  lover, mother  or long forgotten uncle (whom you once might inherit), that most of my works are also available in limited-run prints.

Prints come in three different sizes, 12", 17" & 24" for most paintings and 12" & 17" for most ink drawing sketches. For more information please visit http://www.rupertcefai.com/. In the artworks section, underneath each painting there is an information box with the description of what prints are available. All prints are signed and numbered.

Milonga Otonal

On October 24th, a number of my works will be on display during the event Milonga Otonal at Villa Madama, Attard (see advert). The works are a small collection of studies and sketches I am currently working on, having a common theme, Tango. These are all preparatory works for the upcoming collective exhibition which I am helping to organise together with tango teacher Nathalie Mifsud, titled Tektika Tango which shall be on sometime during May 2010.

Milonga Otonal will be the closing event of the Tango Otonal Workshop with the renowned Maestro Eric Jeurissen from El Corte, organised by Isla Del Tango. The event will start at 9pm and is free to the general public. For further information please send an email to natalie@isladeltango.org

Santi Patroni & Venite Adoremus

Finally dates have been confirmed. Between the 23rd October 2009 and 11th November 2009 I shall be representing Malta in the exhibition titled “Patroni d’Europa e dei Paesi dell’Unione Europea”. The exhibition, which is going to be held at the Chiesa Degli Artisti in Piazza del Popolo, Rome, is a collection of paintings representing the Patron Saints of European countries. The exhibition will be also showing in Sicily from the 6th of December 2009 to 31st of January 2010. At the moment I started work on a painting depicting St. Paul. This is my first involvement in an exhibition with a religious theme but, like every new challenge, I am finding it interesting and I'm enjoying it.

Also, from the 11th December 2009 to the 6th of January 2010 I shall be taking part in an exhibition titled Venite Adoremus, also at the Chiesa Degli Artisti. In this Christmas themed collective exhibition I shall be exhibiting a landscape, portraying the Chiese Gemelle, in Piazza Del Polpolo. I am basing my piece on studies I did during my last solo exhibition at the Chiesa Degli Artisti.

a study of the Chiese Gemelle

Nothing Else Matters

"The Inquisition, what a show, The Inquisition, here we go......." and so the song goes. Every time I start thinking about nudes in art, I end up thinking of Mel Brooks' Inquisition sketch in History of the World Part I . Let me explain. 

One of my favourite nude paintings is The Rokeby Venus (Venus at her Mirror) by Velásquez , seen here on the right. I love her pose, her mysterious face in the mirror, her sensuality and I was always fascinated by that beautiful 'lower back'. Perfect. I also love it because I see it as a symbol of how the nude body has been perceived in art. Completed between 1647 and 1651, Venus was portrayed from the rear probably for safety's sake rather than to tease the imagination. 17th Century Spain was a dangerous place. Anyone caught by the Inquisition painting 'lascivious' paintings was fined 500 ducats. This picture is the only (out of probably four) Venus paintings by Velásquez that still survives. In 1914, this Venus was attacked with a knife in the National Gallery in London by the suffragette  Mary Richardson . In a 1952 interview she said that she "didn't like the way men visitors gaped at it all day long". I can understand the gaping. So, beauty, men gaping, religious zeal, feminist movements.....you have it all.

I have never understood what's the big fuss about the nude human body. Beauty is the only thing that comes to my mind. I find the nudity of the soul, nudity of the inner self more difficult to deal with. Those of you who know what it means to feel 'nude' from within know how uncomfortable it may feel. But there again, with the right person it might  feel good too. And this brings me to my latest nude, seen here underneath. I'm enjoying working on this series, not only for the subject matter but also for the challenges it involves. My fascination for the line between the real and the abstract is still there but the real is becoming more 'real' than in my landscapes. I think the title of the painting says it all....Nothing Else Matters

 

nothing else matters - April 2009 

Submission

Lately I have rediscovered the human figure. It has been quite a while since my last works on the human form.The last collection on the subject can be found HERE . The image here attached is the first finished painting of a series of new works. The approach has been quite simple really, I am using the same techniques that I used while working on the Narratives in Light series but obviously a different subject matter. I'm still experimenting at the moment but I'm quite enjoying the progress so far.

For this particular piece of work I have recorded the different stages of the painting process. Each image of this short video does not necessarily mean a different session but a moment I deemed worth recording. Starting from a blank canvas to the final painting. I find the evolution quite interesting.