An artist’s tribute to her mentor
Portrait of Marie by Harry Pieris
“I’m in the twilight of my life,” she laughingly insists but her paintings for her exhibition this week are all glorious colour – brighter, bolder than before. And this is saying a lot for someone who has always revelled in colour. Clearly, through the passage of years and changing tides of life, one thing has stayed constant for Marie Alles Fernando – her love of painting. The energy that drives this prolific artist and the joy she derives from each fresh canvas are unchanged.
Her new exhibition from December 9-11 in the familiar spaces of the Lionel Wendt Gallery (which has seen Marie’s work over many years), she has titled and it is all to do with the flow of rhythmic patterns in her life. She has experimented with new techniques, bringing all her experience and skill to this exhibition which holds particular significance as she is dedicating it to someone she reveres not only as a great artist but also a mentor and dear friend.
Two well known personalities of yesteryear – Ivor Baptiste and Prof. Douglas Amarasekera schooled her early in the techniques of the French Impressionists and from her mother Genevieve Edirisinghe Alles, an artist herself, there was much to learn. Marie’s first exhibition was with her. But it was Harry Pieris, member of the ’43 Group and founder chairman of the Sapumal Foundation who broadened her horizons and helped her gain a depth of understanding of humanity and spirituality that spurred her growth as an artist.
Marie Alles Fernando
Known primarily as a portraitist though he also painted some fine landscapes, Harry Pieris began painting under Mudliyar A.C.G.S. Amarasekera at the age of 13, and went on to study at the Royal College of Art in London, spending some years in Paris, and later at Santiniketan in India. On his return to the island, his close association with Lionel Wendt saw them work to foster the ’43 Group- that pre-eminent group of artists. Harry was the ’43 Group’s secretary and held it together after Wendt’s premature death. He devoted his latter years to nurturing young artists, his legacy seen in the Sapumal Foundation he set up in 1974 in his Barnes Place home. “It was his life and soul,” says Marie.
The ’43 Group: Collette’s sketch of Harry
Marie can well recall the day she first met him. He walked in to one of her exhibitions at the Lionel Wendt, looked at her work and told her she had talent but should work really hard to succeed. That advice she held dear. He asked if she had heard of the Sapumal Foundation and was shocked on hearing she had not. Invitations for Marie and her husband Cyril to come visit followed and there began an enduring friendship with ‘Uncle Harry’.
In those early days, Marie recalls manning the desk at Sapumal Foundation exhibitions held for George Keyt and Ivan Peries – in the era when there was little market for their work and it was hard enough persuading people to buy a catalogue, let alone a painting. “Today most people speak at great length of George Keyt, Ivan Peries, Richard Gabriel, Lionel Wendt …all good, but what of the aristocratic man who gave up his career as a portrait artist to sponsor with his own finances, these talented artists,” she asks.
Thus, this exhibition is her tribute to the man who encouraged her artistic development in so many ways taking her to classical music concerts and to the theatre. “Becoming an artist in the truest sense of the word is not only about putting colour on a blank canvas or learning to play a musical instrument or practising ballet. It is the ‘becoming’ of a whole new person. It happens gradually after hours of gruelling hard practice and running that extra mile, looking for new inspiration… and last but not least learning life’s values,” she says. Fresh in her mind is the time Harry scolded her for bargaining with a woman who had come to Sapumal selling mangoes in her wattiya.
She hopes many who have followed her work over the years will come and see this exhibition. Gratitude is a forgotten quality these days, she says, and foremost is her wish to honour someone so instrumental in her success. Harry Pieris died in 1988 but the Sapumal Foundation continues his mission. Rohan de Soysa, its current Chairman, will speak at the exhibition opening on December 8.
Marie Alles Fernando’s exhibition will be on at the Lionel Wendt Gallery from December 9 (9 a.m.- 4.30 p.m.) and on December 10 and 11 (9 a.m. -7 p.m.)
Bold use of colour: Marie’s painting ‘Gini kurulla’
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