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Varuni's vibrant work lives on
Varuni Hunt (nee Pieris) once said, 'I like strong colours.' Colour is in me. Ceylon is so full of it. I took up stained glass because of my need to use brilliant colour. For me coloured glass is exciting, like jewels, not like glass at all." Her work received great impetus when she was commissioned to design two 10 foot high windows for a church in Liverpool.

In 1960, Varuni was invited to hold an exhibition by Tokyo University of Arts. She displayed a number of stained glass windows, oil paintings, drawings and sculpture.

She then spent many years in Japan, along with her husband who was a renowned concert pianist, designing stained-glass windows for two churches in Japan. For St. Ignatius Church in Tokyo, she designed the 14 Stations of the Cross and made the windows herself. For the Priory Church of St. Anslem in Tokyo, she designed 21 windows which represent biblical texts chosen by the Benedictine Fathers. These windows too, she made by herself. "Of course stained glass art is self-torture," she said, "my reward is in thinking that my work will live on."

Varuni Hunt (nee Pieris) was born in Kandy in 1909. Her father was the late Louis H.S. Pieris and from her mother, nee Selina De Soysa (youngest daughter of the philanthropist the late C.H.De Soysa), she had her first lessons in painting. She also became a pupil of David Paynter and later went to England to study art at the Slade School, University of London and the Royal College of Art, where she was elected an ARCA.

During her early years in England, Varuni found many patrons for her lively child studies for which she used charcoal, water colour or delicate red sanguine. Her vividly painted pictures and portraits gained recognition and are now to be found in many Western and Eastern countries.

In 1954, Varuni won the first prize in a competition for sculptors in England and she received her prize from the world famous sculptor, Sir Jacob Epstein, who described her winning design - a graceful dancing figure in bronze - as "a truly beautiful work of art".

In 1956, she held her first major painting exhibition in London.

In her later years, Varuni lived in Rome, Paris, Dublin and finally, London. She painted until her death on August 15, 2001.

An exhibition of her paintings, drawings and stained-glass windows will be held on June, 8, 9, and 10, at the Sapumal Foun-dation, 32/4, Barnes Place, Colombo 7, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., each day. In accordance with her wishes all sales proceeds will be used by her trustees for the development and promotion of the fine arts in Sri Lanka.

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