The Dancer and the King Painting

Vanni Pule` is a man of many parts. He is mostly known for his magical performances in hotels, theatres and television. His artistic talent started when he was young and he used to copy cartoon characters from comic books. His ability for cartoons and caricatures became so proficient that he started drawing strip cartoons for a local newspaper and these were published when he was only thirteen. He eventually he became the official cartoonist of the Sunday Times of Malta. This coincided with his attainment of an honours degree in the Arts from the University. Unfortunately some politicians did not take criticism too lightly in those times and because of the political cartoons and because he signed his name, he encountered many problems that affected his artistic career. So he had to give this up and dedicate more time to magical performance. In this he became so proficient that painting had to take a back seat. In the 80s he started painting again under the direction of Anna Spiteri and later under the mentors Anton Calleja and Harry Alden. He also followed a course at St Martin 's Central in London . He has participated in various exhibitions in Malta and abroad and some of his paintings are in private collections in Malta, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Auckland and Rome.