Maribel’s art has come a long way from her debut as Artist of the Month in March 2005, on her own admission, thanks to sapient tutoring and painstaking dedication that is transforming her passion into a full-time job, although she isn’t painting for her livelihood but for self-betterment and personal satisfaction. “Painting is my life”, she says and definitely her polished creations are an obvious token of the technique and precision her talent and expertise are blessed with, expressing her love for nature, architecture and the Great Masters. “Looking back to my first exhibition, I notice it was very eager and colourful, while this new instalment of my art is more mature and researched,” she adds. But let’s not forget her first exhibition was a successful one, with many sales and handsome cash amounts donated to the then urgent Asian Tsunami Appeal. Many well remember her delightful views of Europa Point Mosque and Florence’s Ponte Vecchio, both examples of her interest in straight lines and architectural challenges. Now she is taking the architectural theme a step further with a depiction of busy Casemates, an artwork she is very fond and proud of, that eventually will form part of a collection of Gibraltar scenes, landmarks and landscapes from untraditional angles. Nature is a big inspiration and trees hold a special appeal for her, as long as they show “character” like a majestic olive tree which has been stretching its branches at the Fine Arts Gallery for quite some time, or some warm-toned autumn leaves, or the ethereal trees in the mist, which deserved its high commendation in the 2005 International Art Exhibition. But if landscapes and still lifes are Maribel’s biggest drive, and probably the field she masters with originality and style, portraits have become a self-test in the form of ‘original copies’ of Amedeo Modigliani’s work, which she admires to the point of scrutinising under the magnifying glass his brushstrokes and colour palette and then reproduce them in her own gallery of portraits. It’s the first time the Fine Arts Gallery exhibits a series of artistic copies as an original means of expression, but Maribel is confident that many would like to own a Modigliani, and would certainly prefer her unique copies to mass-produced prints. It takes courage to embark on copy-making, because one must shed one’s own style and taste to think like and actually become the artist one is copying, and not imitating, reproducing and not getting inspiration from, virtually walking in their shoes and in their timeframe. Perhaps for her future exhibitions she will take her ‘remakes’ a step further and combine her own rural experience with the Macchiaioli or the Pointillists’ favourite subject matters. Besides those distinctive ‘after Modigliani’s, we can expect a variety of topics and styles, no doubt she will continue to delight us with her inspiring and beautiful works of art.