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By Ishani
Ranasinghe Meet Windya
Perera, a 22-year-old artist. A past pupil of Musaeus College and
student of Latifa Ismail, Windya took a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree
at the Karnataka Chitra Kala Parisht in Bangalore. On her return
to Sri Lanka, Windya headed the 'Belucci' creative team but later
left to start taking classes at her home in Pamankada. She has also
begun a pattern-making course. "I specialize
in oils but I also use other mediums for my paintings," she
says. Her themes depend on her moods. "When my mind is peaceful
I paint nature," she adds laughing. In the beginning
this was not really her chosen field, "I wanted to go into
fashion designing," she says. But later Windya
realized that art was what she loved the most. She loves painting
the female form in every way; nude and clothed and her paintings
clearly confirm this. Her paintings
apart, Windya's workshop also has an array of painted porcelain,
pots and stationery in trendy designs. She also designs
jewellery and her work is eye-catching. So any idea of pursuing
this I ask. "Not really. I basically do this for my friends
and of course, for myself." What she really wants to do is
open a gallery. Windya will have a stall at an exhibition at the Jana Kala Kendraya on April 4, 5, and 6 and will hold her first solo exhibition of paintings on May 4 and 5 at the Lionel Wendt Gallery. By Vidushi
Seneviratne Though born
in Gampaha, Sarath Premasinghe now 33, lives in Korase, Udugampola.
He studied art as a subject for the Advanced Level examination and
entered the Institute of Aesthetic Studies, gaining a Bachelor of
Arts degree. "Nudity
in art is not something accepted in society, especially in a country
such as Sri Lanka. This is why I wanted to learn more about its
history," says Sarath. The use of
nude or semi nude models in artistic endeavours was a common occurrence
in Europe. Though at first used only for sculptures and paintings
in churches, with time, this developed into studio art. "Artists such as Michael Angelo produced wonderful creations such as "David" but it was most often for churches. Studio art, on the other hand, saw artists like Picasso and Matisse bringing models into the studio and making a study, before painting." So what is the
message he hopes to convey? Simply, the connection between the models
and the artist. While almost 20 paintings will be on display at
his forthcoming exhibition, all, save one, will feature local, female
models. There is ample use of colour with the artist preferring
oils and acrylics. Having been
involved in numerous art workshops in Beruwela, Matara, Ampara,
Polonnaruwa and Colombo, he has worked closely with many reputed
institutions such as the Goethe Institute, British Council and Alliance
Francaise. Sarath has
also participated in events such as the Flag Painting Project, "Made
in IAS", "New Artist Exhibition", "Young Contemporaries"
and the "State Arts Festival". As for his achievements
so far, he won first prize at the 11th annual exhibition organised
by the Ceylon Society of Arts and merit awards at the Young Contemporaries,
organised by the George Keyt Foundation in 1999 and the State Arts
Festival 2000 organised by the Arts Council of Sri Lanka. Though devoting
most of his time to painting, Sarath works as a research assistant
at the Post Graduate Institute of Archaeology. Sarath’s works will be on display from April 1 to April 23 from 10.00 a.m. to midnight at the Paradise Road Galleries. Susantha
creates an 'Amazing World' It was a pioneering
venture launched at a time when there was a dearth of material on
science in Sinhala. His 'Alien
Mysteries in Sri Lanka and Egypt' brought out unknown facts with
strange historical parallels between the two countries. More recently,
he came out with a much researched treatise on rituals, folk beliefs
and magical arts of Sri Lanka. And now he
has given us the first volume of the 'Amazing World', a bilingual
publication covering a whole gamut of interesting topics. According to
Susantha, his creation is a new style and concept in book publishing
invented by him. "It's a mix of computer graphic arts, innovative
ideas, incredible research and vast knowledge gathered by extensive
reading and travels abroad,” he says. The vividly
illustrated publication has been well produced and is a tboon to
the Sinhala reader who cannot easily lay his hands on material in
Sinhala covering the type of topics that Susantha has tackled. While presenting
facts on space exploration and dinasaurs, he talks of the discovery
of the wreck of the Titanic, the mysteries of bird migration and
how human cloning is done. Among prominent personalities featured
in the first volume are Issac Newton, Thomas A. Edison and the Wright
Brothers. As Susantha
claims, the publication is "an armchair travelogue, encyclopedia
and visual delight to the young and the young-at-heart". Unique voices There was some
special lyrical quality in their voices. These had to
be preserved for everyone to appreciate, he stressed. Henry also
paid a glowing tribute to the musicians who had worked with him
over the years - Somadasa Elvitigala, H. H. Bandara, Shelton Premaratne,
Jayantha Aravinda and Austin Munasinghe. Their creations
have been presented by a relatively new musician, Nalin Alwis for
the cassette. Most of the
'old stagers' from Nalu Kela were there to enjoy the evening. Hearing
the songs, they would have gone back to the pleasant days spent
with Henry doing 'Kuveni', 'Hunuwataya', 'Apata Puthe' and a host
of other plays. And for us
who had enjoyed Henry's plays and watched his progress over many
years, it was simply a sweet comeback down memory lane. |
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