Maribel Matthews receives Career Art Award in Sanremo

Local artist Maribel Matthews was recently awarded a ‘Career Art Award’ in Sanremo, Italy, in recognition of her artistic journey.

The awards were presented in the Casino Theatre of Sanremo, a city in the Italian Riveria, which featured a selection of artists from all over the world.

Mrs Matthews said the event was a special occasion for her and she was also selected for the Sanremo biennale, where she submitted a photograph of a sunset over Gibraltar.

“The biennale was excellent,” she said.

“The works were fantastic.”

The biennale was held in the Ariston Theatre in Sanremo and Mrs Matthews photographs were exhibited at the event.

This was the first time she had ever submitted a photograph to an exhibition, and from this event she was put in contact with a place in Paris for her photography.

But between working in Italy, Austria and New York, Mrs Matthews is not sure whether she’ll have time for Paris.

“I'm thinking about it,” she said.

“I've got too much on at the moment.”

She’s turned her sights to painting more of her venetian masks works and focusing closer to home.

“I'm working on two, they're nearly finished,” Mrs Matthews said.

“And also I've done a few paintings of the sunsets. They are big, they're huge, so that takes me more time.”

She plans to donate a venetian mask piece which will be auctioned by Prior Park for their fundraiser.

Her artworks and story have also featured in ArtTour International magazine in their ‘Icon’ edition, called ‘Maribel Matthews: Finding Beauty in Deterioration’.

The 10-page special edition focuses solely on Mrs Matthews environmental collection of works where she explores realism, abstract, and the ‘deterioration of mother earth’.

She has plans for her environmentally focused works too after travelling to the Cotswolds to gather inspiration for her works.

“We stayed in Eddington Park, which is a protected area for animals. It's beautiful and I was able to get a lot of material there for future.”