John Vic Borg

I was born in Mellieha, Malta on the 5th September 1971 but moved to Australia when my parents emigrated there when I was 9 months old. I have held pencils and paper ever since I could walk and would draw whatever came to my mind. When my parents returned to Malta, I found it extremely hard to adjust at first, but I would always find the time to escape to another world through drawing, where I would spend every free moment sketching, bringing my imagination to life. It was during those years at school that my primary teacher, Mr Alfred Vella, encouraged me to take art more seriously and arranged private art lessons for me with artist Mrs Doris Fenech from Mosta.

 

At the age of 10, I started using oils on canvas for the very first time and I quickly fell in love with the medium. I have not stopped using it since.  Oils give me a feeling of freedom to blend the colours as I please because they remain crisp, sharp and vibrant without losing any texture. No matter how many years may go by, a well kept painting will still look as if it has just left the artist’s hands.

 

In 1983, I returned to Australia with my parents and furthered my art studies under the guide of a host of artists. When I turned 18, I decided to return to my hometown Mellieha. Since my return to Malta, I have taken part in a number of collective and solo exhibitions. One of my fondest collective exhibitions was when the Malta Society of Arts in Valletta chose one of my paintings amongst a great number of paintings from other established artists for their 150th anniversary, which was exhibited in the Malta Museum of Fine Arts. I have a number of paintings in private collections around the globe, namely in Australia, England, Germany, Romania, Cyprus, Morocco, Dubai, Ireland, The Vatican, Italy and Malta.

 

I now live in Mellieha with my wife and two children where I enjoy days out in the countryside painting the beautiful array of colours the Maltese landscape has to offer.

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In the past five years I started painting with chocolate which is a challenge in the medium itself