Vin Mifsud holds her ‘final exhibition’ after a lifetime of painting

At 85, artist Vin Mifsud is preparing to hold what she describes as her “final exhibition”, bringing together a large collection of work accumulated over a lifetime of painting and exhibitions held between 1979 and 2004. 

Hosted at the John Mackintosh Hall, it will give visitors the opportunity to view and buy paintings that have remained at her home for years. 

Mrs Mifsud told the Chronicle that deciding to hold the exhibition had not been easy. Her husband died in 2007, and she said she had lost the person who had helped her organise and display her work. 

“When my husband died in 2007, I said that I would hold no more [exhibitions], as he hung the pictures beautifully and helped with a lot of work,” she said. 

She eventually found a place to sell her work and ran a gallery at the Rock Hotel for 10 years. However, further challenges led to a change in her circumstances. 

“Then, I needed heart surgery, and the Rock Hotel was renovated at the same time. I started losing interest in painting, doing only commissions for some time, and then nothing,” she explained. 

Mrs Mifsud subsequently discovered that she had cataracts, which were treated last winter. The experience also made her reflect on how much her eyesight had contributed to her work. 

“I am an illustrator, a delicate detail painter. My strength are the details, and my eyesight now is not as good as it was before,” she said. 

“If you kill my detail, you kill a lot of my style.” 

She recalled the difference she noticed after her first eye operation. 

“The day after I had the first eye done, I found a very ordinary painting and looked at it in astonishment and declared that the colours were jewel-like,” she said. 

When she began looking through her collection, she found more than 160 paintings that were framed or worth framing, alongside another 74 drawings, paintings and sketches of people, many dating from the 1980s and 1990s. 

Some of the portraits depict people who posed for her decades ago. Mifsud hopes they or their families might recognise the subjects and wish to acquire the works. 

“I am wondering if the people remember that they posed for us, or if their families would like to have these paintings of their relatives, so much younger. These are nicely presented, mounted but not framed, at reasonable prices, and the money for these will go to Calpe House.” 

The decision to donate the proceeds to Calpe House was linked to the support she received while her husband was ill and wanting to give something back to the community after the help she and her husband received during that difficult period. 

“I stayed at Calpe House for six months with my husband when he was ill, and it was the best thing ever, because everybody there was there for the same reason,” she said. 

“They all had a sick relative and they supported one another. When there was a crisis with one, all the rest… they'd ring up Gibraltar. They'd use their own phones… And [do other helpful] things like that.” 

“It was a beautiful place to be.” 

The portraits and sketches are displayed in a room near the gallery. The ground-floor gallery contains the rest of the collection, including framed paintings, available for sale. 

Mrs Mifsud said she had questioned the point of keeping so many works stored away rather than allowing others to enjoy them. 

“You know, what's the point of having things stashed away?” she asked herself. 

“And I thought, ‘I'm 85, I'm going to pop off soon. And what will happen to all this lot?’ And I thought I would like to have one big bash, one big final thing..,” she said with a wry smile. 

The exhibition brings together a varied collection, with paintings of flowers and landscapes, including Venice, autumn in London, the Moroccan desert, the Alameda Gardens, the Garrison Library and the top of the Rock. 

There are also more personal subjects, including a hallway at Castle Ramp, where Mrs Mifsud lives and has found happiness. 

The exhibition opened yesterday evening and will run for two weeks from today, Monday to Friday, at the John Mackintosh Hall. 

BOX 

A Mifsud by another Mifsud 

Born in Yorkshire, Vin married a cousin of Gibraltarian artist Leni Mifsud and, when she arrived on the Rock, met the artist and saw the places that inspired her work and Impressionist style. 

She also painted her portrait showing her at work, wearing her familiar glasses and painting smock. 

“She was a great artist,” Vin said, holding her portrait. 

Gallery by Johnny Bugeja