WATER THROUGH WHICH THE DREAM FLOWS

Kenneth Zammit Tabona

Long admired for his lyrical use of colour and his distinctive celebration of Mediterranean light, Kenneth Zammit Tabona has in this new collection of watercolours turned to a subtler chromatic language — cooler, airier, and imbued with a pastel delicacy that marks a notable shift in his ongoing artistic development. The paintings show a refined command of transparency, allowing washes of colour to settle lightly across the page. In place of the bustling human scenes characteristic of earlier periods, these new paintings are populated solely by nature, architecture, and sky. They offer, instead of figure-based narratives, a quiet poetics of place.

This collection extends Zammit Tabona’s ongoing dialogue with the decorative arts and the idea of the garden as a cultivated dream space. Yet it also introduces a gentler rhythm and a looser handling of form. The pastel tonality and softened textures evoke the languid shimmer of early morning or the final quiet before dusk, but not just. Even when colour intensifies — with reds and purples punctuating the compositions — the overall effect remains serene.