Essay 500 words - Twanny Darmanin

Twanny Darmanin was born in Balzan ,1951. He is a painter but he also does sculptures in various media. Twanny always loved art and he was inspired by the best artist Gabriel Caruana and Antoine Camilleri. Darmanin attended Paola Technical School between 1962-65 under the direction of Neville Ferry. Later on he studied at the school of arts under the director of Vincent Apap and Harry Alden. He also did a course in ceramics with tutorship of Gabriel Caruana. He is also a muralist and has painted using the fresco technique. Darmanin worked in the crafts industry and experimented with etching, printing, sculptures, glass blowing and glass painting.

  He took part in four exhibitions in 1981,1983,1996 and 2014. His current exhibition is at the Auberge d'Italie, Merchant street, Valletta.

In his early works Twanny Darmanin used a darker palette consisting of earth colours. His subjects are influence by cubism and surrealism, by Picasso and Dali's work. They are complex works created from influence and his imagination

Paintings: 1980-1990

 In his second exhibition he worked with a Maltese poet. Together they combined paintings,sculptures and poems. His colourful paintings are inspired by Cubism and Surrealism, but he works in his own artistic way of painting .His moods and feelings influence his dynamic painting. 

Later he started using a brighter palette using various colours, both primary and secondary colours. He also painted in monochrome colours. The subjects were simpiler and he captured scenes from everyday life which included landscapes and people from all walks of life.

In his present exhibition his artworks are referred to many aspects of life, history, religion, traditions and other elements of humanity. He is a painter who has passion for  love of colour, form and and simple texture. Today he creates figurative paintings with typical hard edge, subtle cylindrical and spherical forms. 

 He creates a sense of movement in his artworks. Most of his figures are faceless and but the artist forms and creates expressive movements with the torso and hands. Darmanin also exhibited with his paintings the sketches which led to his final work.

Paintings: Post 2010-2013

Faithful Friend

This painting shows an Old lady with two cats near her feet . The old lady is bending down low at her cats. They are the only friends in her life, it like they are her children. He creates a scene of mother hood.

The Enlightenment 

In this painting a clothed female figure on the foreground represents the symbol of awaking consciousness. At the background we can see the entrance to the temples which signifies the dividing line between the world of the conscious and the unconscious.

Biography

(online) Avalibale at:<  http://www.mellieha.com/artists/twannydarmanin/ (Accessed 7th May 2014)
(online) Avalibale at:<  http://twannydarmanin.com/bio/ (Accessed 7th May 2014)