Container, 2023
acrylic on canvas, 130×100 cm

Maritime transportation has accompanied man for centuries. Container ships alone have grown in importance as trade has expanded. Today, this mode of transportation handles more than 90% of the world’s trade in goods. Container ships sail all over the world, covering thousands of nautical miles. They are smaller, larger and huge. Like other modes of transportation, they are also responsible for greenhouse gas emissions from burning fuel.

On our way to Valletta, we passed the picturesque port, which is Malta’s main passenger port and one of the main commercial ports. Moored to the quay was a ro-ro ship that had a sign on its side that read “zero emission in port.” I hope we will see such ships more and more often.
I decided to paint a container ship because I was enthralled by the colors of these ships. When painting, I juxtaposed different colors, in this case the different colors of the containers themselves. They often don’t match, after all, no one at the port thinks about how to color match them. And yet, if you take a painterly look at such a sailing loaded container ship, against the backdrop of the sea, everything in it harmonizes.

Painting these small and colorful squares and rectangles gave me a lot of joy.