Tigre is very tight-lipped on the subject matters making up his September solo exhibition, to be held at the Fine Arts in Casemates. He leaks out only the approximate number of canvasses on display (30), their average size (30 x 25 inches) and their price range (£ 150 to £ 500) just hinting at the predominant use of oils as a medium.

   Nevertheless, Tigre introduced me to his artwork which is already on display at the Fine Arts Gallery — the right stuff to tease and leave you hungry for more.

   At first glance, you just notice bold earth tones and curvy irregular shapes centred on a bright red stain, with generous strokes of black, but once you step back a few feet, the subject matter will almost bound out of the canvas, revealing a plastic bullfight, from the point of view of the audience in the arena, with the slender toreros dodging the bull in a curling embrace of lines around the red cloth right in the core of a composition. The true centre is the horror, at the same time the fascination, for a testosteronepumped bloody rite of passage.

   That’s about it — no more indiscretions on the “Garden of Eden” exhibition, so titled in homage to the divine number (the harmonic proportion which rules all natural shapes and dimensions).   A secret well kept arouses anticipation and invites visitors to approach the Garden of Eden exhibition with a clean outlook and no preconceived ideas on what to expect. Seeking a spontaneous reaction from his audience, Tigre welcomes feedback and critics discussing and theorising about their impressions and feelings of harmony or perhaps disharmony. Not everyone is expected to find themselves comfortable with the divine number, they might find that too much equilibrium is actually disturbing!

   Tigre is one of the few artists in Gibraltar to use a pseudonym, but, as he says, everyone knows who he is anyway, so why keep in the dark the very few who don’t yet? Julian Batty chose his penname (or shall I say brushname?) when he discovered that his talent made him larger-than-life like the wackiest of Winnie the Pooh’s friends, the one who bounces around humming “the most wonderful thing about Tiggers is I’m the only one!”

   Julian was struck with the idea about 20 years ago, during the year of the Tiger according to Chinese horoscope, when he was considering making his livelihood out of watercolours and ink sketches of quaint coasts and ports of Southern France — hence the spelling ‘Tigre’, a truly versatile one, which works well in Spanish and Italian, too!

   So, a Tigre was born and his roar was heard both sides of the Atlantic when Julian moved to New York for 18 months as a butler/caretaker for a block of apartments and a fashion warehouse. But his busy time between the skyscrapers wasn’t too productive artistically speaking.

   His on-hold career resurrected with fresh vigour when Julian moved to Gibraltar and showcased his French watercolours and a wealth of acrylics at the John Mackintosh Hall, followed by an allacrylic expo in the cosy and refined ambience of Sacarello’s in Irish Town, a savoury starter calling for seconds in the ‘Millennium’ exhibition at the same venue, held you’d guessed it! — at the turn of the new century.

   Although he used to be one of the warmest supporters and organisers of live drawing sessions at the Art Centre, and his fourth exhibition in Gibraltar comprised his extensive live collection, proving he could actually draw to sceptics accusing him of having gone abstract allegedly for lack of technique, you will seldom see Tigre painting landscapes in the open air, nor from photographs. He is more the kind of intellectual artist whom the pictures in his mind make tick — ideas ‘bubble away’ in the evening hours and slowly but surely take shape on canvas (or canvasses since he works on more than one at the time).

   “The nucleus of my Garden of Eden was actually a set of five paintings I worked on at the same time, while they were hanging on the walls at home. I hang the canvasses I am working on, not just to let them dry, but so I have them ever-present in my daily routine and I can work on them even when I am not really working on them. I keep them present in my mind, considering what to do next,” Julian explained about his method, which draws inspiration mainly from the subconscious free flow, where all the emotions can express themselves figuratively.

   Julian is a self-taught self-made artist with a lengthy career and about half of his life spent sketching and painting. He is also an enthusiastic promoter of art in Gibraltar, his home for almost two decades. He was part of the founding committee of the Fine Arts Association, which has grown from strength to strength with monthly exhibitions, live drawing sessions, lectures and several more cultural initiatives.

   Julian’s exhibition opens at the Fine Arts Gallery in Casemates Square on Monday 4th September.