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one sitting, in three or four takes." Those takes can be hours long, she says. A lover of electronic dance music, Vītola jokes that she had "the best weekend of my life when I found an 18hour DJ set and used it to help me focus on my work." Do you have plans for any more exhibitions in the near future? It's early days yet, but Vītola has an idea, she says. "In this previous exhibition, I really wanted to make atmospheric paintings and play around with shapes and forms, light and create this atmosphere. "Now I'm planning to work with my favourite medium, charcoal. I would love to make large scale drawings of horses. They're from another world. I have a very strong bond with these animals be- cause I've been riding horses since I was a child. I was very close to horses and their per- sonalities. I have had many nice horse friends…they are so gracious and beautiful." You work in restoration, that's your day job. Do you find it ties in nicely with your artistic abilities? "My artistic abilities come in very handy with retouch- ing. I'm like a manual printer. I can mix any colour imagi- nable and this comes in very handy. Perfectionism and patience are very needed qualities in my line of work. What does restoration en- tail on a day-to-day basis? What's your average day like? "Sometimes we have to do the same thing for a very long period of time but at the same time as soon as you fin- ish you have another project because no two artworks are the same. They would never be the same in terms of res- toration." Have you studied restoration- related subjects in Malta? If so, what impression did you get? "No. All my education comes from Latvia. Learning in university is one thing and another is learning on site. 'The work is the teacher'." What is your most prestigious restoration project? Is it also your favourite? "That was a recent one, the paintings of the Mosta rotunda. At the moment we are restoring a Mattia Preti. There's also St Paul's cupo- la. It's hard to tell which are the favourite ones. Work is work and I tend to treat my patients equally, so to speak." From an outsider's perspective, what is the Maltese art scene like? Is it easy to break into? Vītola says its just the be- ginning of her Maltese expe- rience. "When I came here, I was not intending to break into the scene, it was just that for the first time in my life I had enough time to create my own work. So I spent half a year creating art." What advice do you have for budding artists? "The advice would be "just work." You need to work even if you don't feel inspired, be- cause inspiration comes only when you're working. "My latest collection is about the sensation, about how it makes you feel. Of course the visual is there but you can feel the vibe. ''Contemporary art is about saying something and not creating beauty and atmos- phere, but we all want to be in a great atmosphere. Those paintings are all about the sensation''. Are there any future projects in the pipeline? "You know how it is with projects, I have the thoughts and the will to make and if I have this will, I will do it be- cause I can't live without cre- ating. It's a must and there will be projects coming..." maltatoday | SUNDAY • 18 AUGUST 2019 7 THIS WEEK ART - the Laima Vitola "You know how it is with projects, I have the thoughts and the will to make and if I have this will, I will do it because I can't live without creating. It's a must and there will be projects coming..."