Joseph Casapinta, painter.
How did you get started?
From a very young age I was also keen to put pencil to paper. Having been brought up in a family of two other brothers and a sister, being the youngest of the four, i was always tutored and lead in every respect of life. Art has always been the centre of my life.
Whose artist’s work are you most inspired by?
There are no specific artists which I like most or less than each other. Initially my work was always inspired by the impressionists, and still is. Van Gogh came during post impressionism, yet one who inspired me into starting off painting. His aggressive strokes and colour made me take my first step which made me never to look back.
Describe your work in less than 10 words.
Together with my dancing brushes all my paintings are BOLD, RICH and DYNAMIC. What genre do you consider your work to be?
I would say that today my work is very impressionist. It has fast and short strokes, same technique used by the impressionists yet, I have built and advanced in my own style with expressing spontaneously with pencil or ink and then with washes of fiery colours.
Your favourite from among your own artworks?/Where was your first exhibition held?
Watercolour has stole my heart for the love of art. Although I had always worked with combining my ink sketches with washes, I would never exhibit this work until 2013. My first exhibition was back in 2000 with a collection of landscapes in acrylic on canvas.
What are you working on at the moment?
Painting en plein air is building up my current collection of paintings in preparation for my upcoming exhibition to be held in Adenau Germany. Although many paintings pass through their final stages at my studio.
How long have you been painting?
As long as I can remember. I have always been taught that sketching would lead me to any medium or genre of art. From a very young age I would sketch anything that came to site. Probably some 25 years ago I applied my first watercolour, changing to acrylic and oils in the process. Yet, never forgetting the basics, which I have gone back to in using Ink and watercolour.
Are you a morning person or do you come alive at night?
I have always been a morning person, although at a certain period of my life I would burn the midnight oil and paint large abstracts in preparation for my 2010 solo exhibition ‘Element of Moods’.
Today I paint en plein air as early as 6:30am until the sun allows me to, especially during the summer months. As for my studio works, I have no specific time or number of hours… it all depends on the mood I am in.
How many coffees a day? Don’t embellish.
FIVE !
Sundays can be very productive for some and very unproductive for others. How do you spend yours?
Unless I do not decide to head to some remote site, weather permitting, sketching or painting with my outdoor gear all set up including coffee, most of my Sundays start off with a tea and a Maltese Ftira at one of the traditional local bars together with a great friend of mine, browsing through the papers. Family time is also very important so this would be on my top of the list after a working week.
Wine and cheese. Yes or no?
I would say YES … although I have cut down on the wine
If you were given a million euros, what would you indulge yourself with?
Build a sea view studio
Favourite place to holiday?
Anywhere by the sea with loads of shade
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