We live on an island where family bonds are strong and yet many of us have close relatives who live overseas. For Maltese painter and political cartoonist, Seb Tanti Burlò, it’s the comfort he finds in the familiar, both near and far, that underpins his latest works, on show in a new exhibition, FamiliaR at The Gallery at Green & Stone in London where he currently lives.
He has found new family and friends in the UK and it is with them that he is exhibiting later this month. His wife Lydia Cecil is a representational painter working between the UK and Malta; her mother Katie Rockley, a landscape painter whose fluid oil landscapes capture the quiet, often overlooked elements of the English countryside. Their long-time family friend sculptor Adam Roud is known for his elegant, figurative bronzes in which he balances anatomy and abstraction, with a focus on poise, movement, and volume.
“FamiliaR is an apt title,” says Hester Baldwin, Gallery Director. “Not simply for the affection and creative kinship that connects Rockley, Cecil, Roud, and Burlò, but for the sense that each piece in this exhibition carries something recognisable, a lived moment, a fleeting mood, a landscape walked many times but seen anew. And yet, the familiar here is never static. These artists don’t pin things down; they give them space to move, to shift in meaning as we meet them with our own experiences.”
The artists’ works, although varied in medium and temperament, share an essential clarity of purpose: to observe closely and to translate that observation into something felt. There is a generosity in that. Cecil’s intimate stillness, Roud’s quiet weight and lift, Rockley’s graceful topographies, Burlò’s irreverent intellect, each artist offers a distinct perspective, but the works speak together, not in unison, but in harmony.
There is a particular kind of joy that comes from sitting with artists as they talk, not just about their work, but about the world as they see it. The experience of these four is something richer still. The conversation loops easily between philosophy and paint, bronze and memory, light and form. The cohesion of this group lies not in ideology, but in a shared understanding that art is not a point to be proven, but a space to be held open, for dialogue, for complexity, for play. It has been a pleasure to witness this coming together, not only of art, but of artists whose respect for one another has shaped and sharpened their creative lives.
“Just as Lydia’s mother taught her how to paint, my father taught me how to draw and how to paint,” smiles Burlò. “I spent all my time as a kid in his studio. I’ve always moved around – I lived in Barcelona, and I studied in the UK – so I’ve never really had the attachment of place. However, when I’m painting, wherever I am, I’m never without my family.”
When he returned to the UK five years ago, Burlò found the landscape “brown, green and grey!”
“I was used to the oversaturated colours of the Mediterranean, our blinding yellows and brilliant blues,” he explains. “When I started going out in the Dorset countryside with my sketchbook and my easel, there were so many varieties of greens, browns that it took some adjustment. It took time before I started seeing the other colours. Suddenly, the magnolias came out and they were like fireworks in the green. And then, I felt comfortable!”
“Before I knew Lydia, Katie and Adam, my painting was more aggressive,” continues Seb. “Although I always loved gardens and the natural world, as a political cartoonist, I tackled hard and big themes, focusing on what we have lost in Malta, on the ugliness, the over-construction and so on. However, with these paintings, I took a step back. Here, I am looking at and appreciating the world anew. I have found a new side to me, one that’s more peaceful.”
The change in Burlò’s works since his last solo exhibition in Malta in 2023 is clear. In FamiliaR, his colours and even the motion of his brush strokes has changed. In these latest works he incorporates a new softness as he depicts familiar places and landscapes he holds dear – Għar Lapsi Tower, Siġġiewi, and the English countryside. As he turns his Mediterranean gaze on the English countryside, there’s still an undeniable Maltese vibrancy.
The collection also includes paintings of Mezzomonte outside Florence, where he met Lydia and where they hope to move next year.
“Yes, I feel the pull of my Southern Europe roots and I’m keen to go back. I make more sense there than I do here!” Burlò laughs.
FamiliaR runs from October 21-30 at The Gallery at Green & Stone, Fulham Road , London
