Malta and Gozo Students Prize 2026

This artwork represents the struggle many people face with mental health, feeling restrained by anxiety, depression, trauma, or self-doubt. The breaking chains symbolize strength, freedom, and the moment of choosing healing. Mental health challenges aren’t a weakness, they are experiences, and seeking help and opening up about your struggles is an act of courage and freedom.

This painting portrays a woman’s face illuminated by a single candle, its warm flame casting dramatic light and shadow across her features. The rich blend of oranges, reds, and cool shadows creates an intimate, almost meditative mood, while her direct gaze suggests quiet strength and vulnerability. The candle becomes a symbol of inner light, hope, or reflection amid surrounding darkness.

This is an oil painting on an A2 canvas, inspired by Goyas black paintings but with a positive twist.

This painting titled “Fear Love” is an allegory of the way society perceives one of the most valued emotions – Love. The kneeling figure gazing upwards with a mixture of desire, regret and hopelessness narrates the story of being who has fallen to the illusion love projects. The apple represents the temptation of beauty, while the snake symbolizes the silent dangers and corruption. The wings signify purity and strength, emphasizing that even the strongest willed people can be broken by this emotion. The bite mark on the fruit shows the irreversible damage and the coiled snake ready to suffocate the angel depict the fragility and hidden consequences of trust and love.

This painting is a self-portrait of me captured in a bright, joyful moment, smiling with a sense of freedom and warmth. It reflects a feeling of nostalgia, like looking back on a happier time that still lives inside me. Painting myself this way was more than just creating an image — it was a way of getting through a hard and difficult period, reminding myself that happiness and hope still exist even when life feels heavy.

In this expressive still life titled ‘The Odd One Out,’ one sees a bird’s eye view of a cluster of oranges. The composition is dense and warm, dominated by the rich, textured oranges and deep green leaves of the citrus fruits. This is a painting of several oranges surrounding one lemon, the odd one out.

A contemplative portrait exploring time, identity, and self-recognition. An elderly woman gazes into a mirror that reflects her younger self, creating a quiet dialogue between past and present. The contrast between age and innocence invites reflection on memory, transformation, and the enduring core of the self.

A minimalistic portrait of a young woman on her skateboard.

This painting depicts the three stages in a woman’s life: Youth, Adulthood and the elderly years. Youth is represented in the bottom shelf with colourful nail polishes and makeup that are typically used in our youth. Meanwhile, the middle shelf representing adulthood, contains more expensive things that an adult woman could afford to buy and use, like creams and perfumes. The top shelf contains visibly used and empty makeup since it is old, reflecting the elderly stages of life. I also chose to use a warm vs cool palette, using warmer hues at the bottom which gradually decrease the further they move upwards, symbolizing the excitement and energy of life that tend to calm down the older people get.

This painting is based on a moment the artist experienced personally standing in a crowd during a concert. Everyone is close together sharing the same moment and capturing it on their phones, many of whom to share it once again with others on their social media. the raised screens glow like extensions of the body, turning the moment into something that is recorded rather than just felt. Technology connects the crowd, allowing everyone to experience the same moment at once, but it also creates distance by separating each person into their own screen. Light from the phones and stage moves across faces, showing how presence and memory are shaped through devices. The painting captures how technology shapes shared experiences of energy and connection, seen from inside the crowd itself.

War destroys more than cities, it destroys families. While leaders selfishly fight to win, who remembers the innocent people paying the price? This painting shows a mother and her teenager clinging to each other in mourning after great loss. The child’s silhouette beside them becomes a symbol of their pain, while their outward gaze suggests searching and still hoping the child, and the father, will return alive. What do you do when each other is all you have left? The harsh impasto textures echo the violence of war as ruined buildings and a broken home close in around them. A shattered family photo, an empty house, even screaming walls. How much loss can one space hold?

Inspired by the quiet forces that shape landscapes over time, this painting explores the tension between movement and stillness. Fluid layers of neutral tones echo erosion, pressure, and transformation, suggesting a moment where disruption softens into balance.

The work invites the viewer to reflect on change not as destruction, but as a subtle and ongoing unfolding, where forms dissolve and re-emerge in a continuous dialogue between chaos and harmony.

The artwork depicts a peacock perched among flowering branches, surrounded by lush leaves and blooming flowers. Its long tail feathers cascade downward. The background has a soft, textured, vintage look, with muted tones that contrast gently with the peacock’s rich blues and greens. The flowers symbolize beauty, renewal, and gentle growth. Their soft blooms represent life’s fleeting moments and emotional warmth, balancing the peacock’s bold presence with grace, harmony, and natural softness. The peacock symbolizes beauty, confidence, and pride. It also represents renewal, self-expression, and the strength to stand out.

A golden retriever is caught committing the most serious crime imaginable: stealing a burger. Set in an empty parking lot with a dramatic billboard in the background, the scene looks like a tense movie moment—even though it’s really just a dog following its stomach. The piece is done in watercolour, and the soft, blended textures help soften the setting and give the moment a light, playful feel that adds to the humour.

This is a self portrait which shows the young artist in me that is still discovering herself through art and colours. I mimicked Van Gogh’s strokes to represent my flow of thoughts and emotions and I added flowers and greenery to represent the part of me that’s more attracted and at peace in nature. I feel like art is what keeps my heart beating therefore it’s my pulse. It’s purposely meant to look unfinished in a complete and fulfilled way to show that I’m still developing through an artistic perspective and that my world is made up of colours and brush strokes.

Memories of My Grandfather, detail.

A portrait of a girl with a heavy gaze, looking to the viewer with intense feelings through her eyes.

This artwork is a study of horses in dynamic motion, focusing on anatomical accuracy, muscle structure, and movement. The theme of power and grace is shown through multiple poses that capture energy, balance and strength. Graphite pencil and PanPastel were used to create tonal shading and expressive line work on paper.

This painting is inspired by a day spent with friends exploring and swimming around Gozo. As we prepared to leave on the ferry, I was struck by the intensity of the sunset over Mġarr Harbour. While I captured a photograph of the moment, I felt that a painting was necessary to truly express the energy of the colors. In this work, I focused on the contrast between the dark, silhouetted shapes of the vessels and the vibrant, fractured light on the water’s surface. My goal was to capture the transition between the end of a personal journey and the natural drama of the Mediterranean sky. It represents the final look at the island after a long day a moment where the landscape feels both calm and powerful

It’s an autumn landscape painting of a quiet river running through a forest. The trees are tall and spread out on both sides, and their leaves are glowing in warm colours like red, orange, yellow, and even some pink and purple. The ground is covered in fallen leaves. The river is the main focus because it reflects the sky and the trees, and it makes the whole scene feel calm and peaceful. In the background the colours fade lighter, giving it a dreamy vibe. I tried to keep the brushstrokes loose and soft so it doesn’t look too perfect, but more like a memory of a place you have been. The painting feels warm, quiet, and kind of magical.

This artwork was created using watercolor and colored pencils. I accidentally encountered this street in Malta and was drawn to its atmosphere, then searched online and found a reference photo I wanted to paint. The distinctive Maltese balconies, gallarija, and churches, combined with vibrant plants, capture the unique charm of Malta’s man-made architecture.

This painting explores how trying to meet society’s expectations can make you lose yourself. The girl represents the “perfect” version society wants, but in becoming that, she loses her true identity. When she reaches for her reflection, her face is missing, showing how distant she has become from who she really is. The candle represents a small spark of hope in the surrounding darkness. Surrounded by beauty standards, she looks flawless outwardly, but inside she feels disconnected and invisible—illustrating how chasing what others want can make you disappear.

A portrait painting inspired by someone I hold very close to my heart. He has been trough a lot of suffering in his life and has still managed to stay true to himself. I wanted to display this in my painting, thus I chose pixels to convey my message. I want him to inspire people and show them that even though you go through so much in life you should always work hard to grow and have a beautiful and kind soul just like his. It is important not to give up on yourself. The pixels in this painting show that even though it has flaws and is blurred, it is still beautiful in itself.

This painting shows the Gozo boat which used to be the Malta – Goza ferry boat way back in the old days. Here it is sailing in a storm through the rough sea. The dark clouds and strong waves represent the challenges and struggles of life, while the Lighthouse symbolizes hope, guidance and safety as the light helps the boat find its way. Altogether this makes great contrast and shows that even in dark and difficult situations, you have to look out for that light that gives you hope.

A monochrome artwork with a strong meaning and emotion. It includes some colour which symbolises hope contrasting with the darkness of the night and solitude.

This relief is inspired from the Little Mermaid, focusing on the moment of inner struggle of love and self-hood. The upward gaze contrasts with the body entwined by the sea, symbolising a desire for escape that remains unfulfilled. Tentacle-like ocean forms surround her, serving as metaphor for pain, restraint and silent sacrifice. Her suffering is not limited to a fairy tale but reflect earl-life experiences at enduring loss and self-suppression in the pursuit of love or ideals. Beneath the beauty of the form, the work seeks to convey a quiet yet persistent sense of pain and emotional resonance.

On a snow-kissed winter night, Glitter the Star-Light Courier, who delivers holiday wishes, hurries through the city streets with glowing star-threads in hand. Her pack is stuffed with candies and pom-poms. She tiptoes to an alley where a child hums carols… hope this warmth can accompany the children through the long cold night.

By telling girl‘s stories, friends show different emotions: peace, surprise etc. This moment is the motive for the picture.

Self-Gaze is a digital painting crafted stroke by stroke on a tablet. It takes inspiration from Benjamin Victor’s 2017 sculpture The Angel. Set in a derelict church, a beam of light embraces the angel figure, with shadowy textures lingering around. The piece mirrors my inner world, laying bare the conflicting tug-of-war I feel when looking deep within.

This portrait of a young girl in Gaza, is meant to remind people of the innocent people suffering and dying in countries hit by war. These days we are bombarded by the media on the various conflicts taking place around the world. We hear about the numbers of people perishing there and this happens so often we tend to think of people as numbers. Those numbers have a face, those faces had lives, families, dreams, aspirations… All taken away with no disregard by those in power…