Artist Isabelle Borg dies

Isabelle Borg, known to be one of Malta's best female artists, has died this morning.

Borg, who's works are among prestigious private and public collections, had made a name for herself internationally.

News about her death has shocked the arts community.

Malta's ambassador to Tunisia Vicky-Anne Cremona who was known to be a very close friend, described Isabelle Borg as a "person who loved life so much and embraced it in all its aspects."

Artist Jeni Caruana stressed that Isabelle Borg will be "sadly missed," and wept at the news of her friend's demise.

Isabelle Borg has lived in London (her birthplace, 1959) and Malta, as well as spending periods in Berlin, and West Cork, Ireland. She studied painting at the Camberwell School of Art, London, graduating BA (Hons) in 1986. Since gaining an MA (History of Art) in 1994, she teaches art full-time at the University of Malta.

Since 1985, she has regularly held solo exhibitions of her paintings, and often been asked to participate in group shows. Her work is found in a number of public and private collections. Working from her studio in Floriana, Malta, she continues to exhibit locally and internationally, and to publish her research in art.

Early solo landscape exhibitions Marine and Maritime Paintings (1991) and Bastions and Harbours (1992) concentrated on Malta's constructed coastline. Later, Two Islands (2004, with photographer Graham Cooper) and Maltese Landscape (2006) were inspired by natural scenery and atmospheric conditions. Much of this change has come from time spent painting Irish landscape since 2000, whilst based in Clonakilty, West Cork. Most recent exhibition Strange Cargo (National Museum of Fine Arts, Malta, 2008) explores the effect of this series of journeys and homecomings, and re-defines an earlier interest in figurative art.