Hi Clients
I have a confession to make, I laid down the brushes for about 3 weeks. Just didn’t have the urge, the ideas, nothing but a blank canvas staring at me.
This is quite normal for an artist, I was once taught that the way to break it was to paint the canvas any colour, yellow orange anything. just so it’s not white!
A trick a writer can never use to defeat writers block.
NEW. Filfla 2014 60x60cm Oil on canvas. A classic LeMakoo.
http://www.lemakoo.com/maltese-landscapes.html
Anyway, that didn’t work this time, so I just gave into it and did other things, I have lots of inventory, so not a problem.
I went to Istanbul, an amazing city, but unlike Venice it didn’t inspire me in that way.
I saw many bullet holes in the glass at the front of the Mango store and riot cannons permanently parked in Taksim square. Child poverty, loud political rallies and a country on the verge of change. I wish them well. It was great however, to be back in a city with millions of people. Never a dull moment.
NEW. Girls, 76x57cm Ink on watercolour paper.
http://www.lemakoo.com/women-paintings.html
Then it just broke, all the enthusiasm returned, ideas flowed and everything went back to normal.
Art is an odd business, can’t fight it or control it, just ‘let it be’:)
That’s all, thanks for reading, here’s a LeMakoo piece a friend wrote about me.
Bye for now
A flourishing career that started back in 1988 has reached a remarkable milestone. Michael Wright,
the Australian painter who has been painting in Malta full-time for the last 5 years, has sold his 200th painting.
In the dog-eat-dog market of the crowded and overflowing Maltese art scene this is a magnificent feat
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de Paloma preferred the name Pablo Picasso)
is a unique artist with both feet fixed firmly in the commercial and flamboyant.
A quick tour around Malta and it becomes easy to appreciate the impact LeMakoo has made on his adopted
home. From restaurants in St. Julians to wine bars in Valletta and even furniture showrooms proudly display a
burning, moving landscape of LeMakoo. He has succeeded in creating a brand name for himself – something
local artists seldom achieve – and the Malta art scene is all the better for it.
Of course LeMakoo is not solely a ‘local’ artist in the pedestrian sense, LeMakoo is an internationally successful
artist who even has paintings on display in a prestigious gallery in Moscow. This is a source of great pride for the
globe-trotting Australian painter although he takes even more pride in the statistic that says 62% of his sales
have been local.
This landmark sale is the culmination of a long artistic career that spans a lifetime and a half, one might say.
LeMakoo was always an artist, and he spent 15 years working as an artist for newspapers. Whilst the job was
satisfactory as it gave him good experience, exposure and contacts he grew tired of publishing artwork that would
only survive until the next day. He wanted to create something less perishable and with more
longevity – and without photoshop!
LeMakoo held his first exhibition on the Isle of Man 10 years ago, shortly before coming to Malta, and it was the
start of a prosperous affair. In Malta he has held exhibitions in a variety of places like hotels (a stand-out one being
in the Hotel Phoenicia where he exhibited works inspired by his native Sydney and Malta, hosted by the
Australian Embassy.), restaurants and trade fairs.
And it was one of the latest exhibitions of LeMakoo, held at the Intercontinental Hotel Malta, that lead to the rightly
celebrated 200th sale. The painting is a small landscape of Valletta, burning with the vibrant orange and reds that have
so often adorned LeMakoo’s Mdinas and Sydneys. Valletta itself has a Van Gogh feel to it, with the sleepy black,
thick paint that animates it – but instead of a Starry Night we see crowning it the Sunny Dawn that characterizes
the Maltese Islands.
The art market is analogous to the ‘survival of the fittest’ regime nature employs. Only the most adaptable survive
and LeMakoo’s success – prices for 120 x 60cm painting have increased over 100% from 300euros to 700euros
now, and the sales have increased proportionately – is a triumph of individuality and artistic integrity.
As a show of appreciation for his buyers and followers, LeMakoo offered subscribers of his newsletter a lottery chance
to purchase an original LeMakoo at 50% discount price. LeMakoo is proud of the fact that he never does sales – frankly,
he doesn’t need to – however he feels that the milestone deserved a worthwhile offer. And at this rate it’s only a matter
of time before the next milestone is reached.
-- Michael Wright Artist www.lemakoo.com www.facebook.com/lemakoo --
LeMakoo 