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Singing
with love and musicality This talented
and versatile soprano made her debut with the Cantata Singers 20
years ago - then as a choral singer. She subsequently moved onto
greater things and is now based with her family in Sydney. Their
gain and Colombo's loss, but the balance was redressed as she sang
several solo items and also took part in choral pieces. Her easy
singing style and sweet voice with a natural, unforced tone gave
a glow to the evening's music-making which brought forth universal
warm appreciation. In contrast
to the mature experience of the soloist, some other members of the
choir were clearly still in the early stages of musical performance.
Not that this caused any problem: quite the opposite. There is,
however, a distinctive quality of tone in youthful voices - perhaps
a lack of richness but a compensating clarity and strength. The
result was a choral sound of unusual vibrancy and power with a wide
dynamic range which was well exploited during the evening as a whole,
even if one or two particular items were sung without the variety
that might have been there. There were
a few moments of uncertainty for the choir and even a false start,
but the overall effect was of well rehearsed singing of much loved
music. The choir sang nothing from earlier than Mozart and included
several twentieth-century items - though none of them so modern
as to make for anxious singing or puzzled listening. Ms. Olagasegarem
sang solos by Handel, Schubert, Joyce Tricket and an additional
one by Mozart. A word about
the accompanists, one of whom, the pianist Ms. Ramya de Liverea
Perera was playing at short notice. I sense that the organist, like
some of the male singers, was still relatively inexperienced. Nevertheless
she did well and several times, rather than flounder in challenges
that were beyond her, kept quiet, leaving the singers to get on
with the things which in general they did rather well. All of this
was wise and musical. And finally,
all profits from the concert are being given away to help provide
medical care for children whose quality of life is at present extremely
impoverished. Three cheers for that and all power to those striving
to bring healing to the little ones whose plight was so graphically
and movingly described to us during a break between pieces of music. Bringing
light and life to photographs "I do
not simply copy a photograph," says Athula earnestly. "There
are so many facets that a photograph is unable to convey. For example
the play with light and dark that photographers tend to use."
Glancing at the actual photograph and then at Athula's interpretation
this is evident. The dark shadows
that a photographer has to be content with are utilized by Athula
to great advantage. A blur on a photograph is quietly converted
into a rickety old umbrella. The majesty
of the perahera cannot be captured completely in a photograph so
Athula opts instead to use it as his foundation and then let his
imagination run free to highlight and hide the positive and negative
aspects as he sees fit. "I try
to create an almost three dimensional effect with my paintings,
The dark patches you would see in a photograph are used to give
depth to the character when painting." It is not only
interpretations of photographs that Athula is to exhibit - for there
are also quite a number of original pastels too. This is Athula's
second exhibition and he feels that it is all due to the interest
fostered by his mentors Stanley Abeysinghe and S.P. Charles that
he has come this far. Ethereal
strokes of nature "Leaves"
is Niloo Gunasekera's second solo exhibition. Like her last highly
successful exhibition "Calla", in which the Calla Lily
took centre stage, Niloo's inspiration is again nature. This time
she takes as her subjects the Gingko and the Bo Leaf. Gingko trees
are ubiquitous in Japan and their leaves are an important design
element in Japanese art. In shape they resemble the Gotukola leaf
found here. Her second
chosen subject, the Bo leaf, as any Sri Lankan would know, has religious
significance and also serves as a recurring motif in Sri Lankan
traditional design and architecture. It is no accident
that Niloo has chosen leaves which have strong, symbolic meaning
in the two countries which have formed her. Niloo has spent most
of her life in the country of her birth, Sri Lanka and had her artistic
apprenticeship in Japan. The watercolours
of this exhibition are a fusion of textured design and ethereal
watercolour strokes. As a starting point, Niloo uses actual Bo and
Gingko leaves, as a sort of block print to help create images of
leaves, while the watercolour wash helps create a soft backdrop
which spotlights the rich detail of each leaf. Each watercolour
bears the imprint of the special unique characteristics particular
to the chosen leaf. At the end of this process the leaves are embellished
with the paint and rendered into art themselves. In effect, nature
is the instrument which transforms the medium (paint and paper)
into art, while the medium in return transforms nature into art. Each autumn,
Niloo receives fresh Gingko leaves from a Japanese friend. Each
leaf is sent to her carefully wrapped in tissue. The sender often
writes a short poetic few words about each leaf that is sent. This
is not unusual. The Japanese have a highly cultivated appreciation
of nature. Most of their art forms draw inspiration from trees,
landscapes, flowers and the seasons. In fact their art can be said
to be a philosophic meditation on nature. This same communion
with nature is apparent in all of Niloo's work. Her watercolours
are a meditation on the uniqueness of Nature's creations. In something
as insignificant as a mere leaf, we can discover the beauty and
the generosity of nature. Niloo's art
is almost iconic. It is genuine, pure and undeceptive. |
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Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
Athula
is not a conventional artist in the sense that most of his works
are interpretations of photographs. The Burmese monk for instance
was adapted from the work of a veteran photographer.
