Concept

The lavish publication, was penned on the initiative of Prof. Victor Grech, the artist’s only student, and the artist’s two sons, Juan and Stefan, who wanted to share their father’s artistic legacy and its defining moments. They shared endearing memories through an interview, carried also in the publication, that reveals more sides to the creative man, generally renowned for his seascape and landscape paintings. Stefan Borg Manduca’s words during the book launch expressed this very eloquently: “What a beautiful soul he was, an amazing and loving father, an army man, an artist and a true gentleman, old school.”
In his speech for the book launch, Prof. Richard England, whose wife Myriam happens to be Borg Manduca’s sister, elaborates on this: “The poet’s quotations and John’s canvases harmonise together like the individual instruments of an orchestra to produce a resounding and rewarding audio-visual concerto.” 
During his speech, England also emphasised on the improvisatory abilities of the artist who, according to Borg Manduca’s son Stefan’s words in the interview, generally used the paint brush only to sign the finished work. The dexterity in his father’s use of the palette knife was his signature technique.
John Borg Manduca – Landscapes and Seascapes is a must for Maltese art aficionados and collectors of Melitensia. Grech’s eclectic approach in its authorship provides a freshly unorthodox perspective on a Maltese artist who was surely one of the main protagonists of the Maltese 20th-century seascape genre. 
Summarised from: The Times article by Joseph Agius.