PAINTINGS AND PAINTERS: Kumar Gunawardane

PAINTINGS AND PAINTERS

Kumar Gunawardane

 

“A THING OF BEAUTY IS A JOY FOREVER” – in ENDYMION, A POEM BY JOHN KEATS

 

With one mighty blow, ND has demolished my writer’s block. The skilful reproduction of the Vermeer masterpiece, along with the polished prose and imagery, stirred not only my soul but also my wrist. The delayed response is due to my minuscule typing skills, which forces me to write first in longhand; however, this allows my thoughts to flow freely and keep the printer's devil at bay. 

Hippocrates of Kos astutely commented on medicine, “ ARS LONGA, VITA BREVIS” (art is long, life is short); so it is for writing and painting. But the reward is the finished product that delights both the amateur and the cognoscenti. Once more, I thank you, ND, for your profound efforts to keep the Blog alive and also to Mahen for preserving and sustaining this forum. 

We are so blessed to have artists of the calibre of Chira, Srianee (Bunter) and also Rani I, who have in the past provided us with visual feasts. Kanthi and I have visited Rani and Indra’s grand abode in Colombo, which resembles an art gallery where the salons overflow with artwork. 

My interest in paintings was first aroused by my father’s collection of prints by British artists. He had bought them from an English expatriate who was going back for good. The clear favourite was Gainsborough’s Blueboy, a full-length portrait of a young man said to be the artist's nephew. The original hangs in the Huntington gallery in San Marino, Los Angeles. Kanthi and I, many years ago, spent an informative and pleasurable afternoon there; it also houses a priceless Gutenberg bible. The mansion which once belonged to the railroad magnate Henry. E. Huntington is surrounded by a vast landscaped garden and is his gift to the nation. The Getty Centres, The Norton Simon museum and LA County Museum along with the Huntington rescues this vast city from its crass commercialism and traffic chaos. 

One of my lasting regrets is that I did not succumb to the overtures of my mother to train in music or art. She herself was a competent violinist and painter. 

A prized possession of mine is a watercolour of the Taj Mahal in her book of friendship. The caption reads “Patience is a virtue, Virtue is a grace, Put the three together , It will make a pretty face. Beatrice Seneviratne. Dated 12.1.29.

Every Sunday morning, my brother and I were packed off after breakfast to a grand uncle who lived nearby. He was a good landscape painter as well as a photographer in an era when cameras were expensive and rare. We affectionately called him ‘photo seeya’ alias Photographer grandpa. I must have picked up some of his skills as I did paint a thatched village hut fenced by leafy trees for school competitions. 

Another sublime opportunity was missed at STC. One of our lower school art teachers was Nalini Jayasuriya; she went on to become an internationally renowned artist who exhibited worldwide and was acclaimed for the fusion of Buddhist culture and Asian Christianity. She was a good sculptor too and got us to make a scale model of an ancient Egyptian city, for a school exhibition. We bagged a prize, which thrilled us no end but really it should have been given to Miss Nalini. Suri and Srianee’s mothers who also taught in the Lower School would have known her.

My mother’s efforts bore fruit however in our love for literature, poetry, religion and the land of our forefathers. 

PAINTERS

I have been fortunate to have had at least a fleeting acquaintance with many great painters. This then is my story. 

GEORGE KEYT

GK was the greatest Srilankan painter of the twentieth century. I first became aware of him in an article in the Serendib in-flight magazine of Air Lanka. This to me was the best inflight magazine of them all and I have hoarded all my complimentary copies. The illustrations of his paintings and his life story fascinated me and I resolved to visit him. He was said to be living then at Sirimalwatte, a remote village in the outskirts of Kandy with his third and final wife Kusum Narayan. Previously he had lived there with his second wife Pilawela Menike. Kanthi and I after worshiping at the Kandy Dalada Maligawa went in search of the elusive artist only to be informed that he had relocated a couple of years previously. Bitterly disappointed, we returned to Australia mission unaccomplished. I had to report back to work. 

On our next visit, I finally met him in his modest house at Piliyandala, an obscure village not far away from Colombo. He was a friendly light skinned plump clean shaven middle aged man with flowing white hair dressed in a white faded Kurta and baggy pyjamas. The next two hours was one of the most fascinating educational experiences of my life. He held forth in perfect English (as befitted a scion of an aristocratic Dutch Burgher family) on Buddhism, Sri Lankan temple art , Indian philosophy, poetry and personalities. On learning that I was a cardiologist, he asked me whether I could visit again as he was worried about the health of one of his sons from Pilawala Menike.

Sasa Jataka God king Sakra painting hare on moon

I obliged readily and returned with a couple of books for autographs. One was his English translation of the poet Jayadeva’s Gita Govinda, a Sanskrit poem that depicts the passionate love between Lord Krishna and his beloved Radha. This book is worth buying solely for GK’s voluptuous line drawings, although the poetry too is overwhelming. The other was a coffee table book of his most famous works. This time I asked him whether he had any paintings for sale. Profusely apologetic he said he had only one which was of Kusum , and was his gift to her, but the George Keyt Foundation may have some. I trekked there immediately with Kanthi’s brother Nimal and was lucky to pick up three sketches at a very reasonable price. Their value now has skyrocketed a thousand times. 

But to me their prime worth is the memory of this eloquent erudite genius whose masterpieces will live forever in the hearts and minds of art connoisseurs in Srilanka and elsewhere.

“Softly on his flute he plays, 

Calling to the meeting place,
Naming it with names, and saying where,
And the pollen by the breezes borne, breezes which have been on you
That pollen in his sight has high esteem,
He dwells the garland wearer, 

In the forest by the Jamna,
In the gentle breezes there”

Gita Govinda by Jayadeva. Translation by George Keyt.

AJITH

Ever since meeting GK, I felt a void in not having at least one of his paintings. Collectors who had any would not part and whatever was up for sale was out of my league. Serendipitously, while strolling down Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha formerly Green Path looking at wares of budding artists, I came across Ajith whose special skill was reproducing GK paintings. They were so authentic that he would sign his name at the bottom to stop fraudsters palming them off as originals. He had a photo book from which we could order our pick. Thus I became the possessor of several GK lookalike canvases.

Unfortunately, he was struck by two debilities lethal to his craft; Parkinsonism, and rheumatoid arthritis of his fingers. I helped him medically too, but he simply faded away. 

SENAKA SENANAYAKE.

Another, who could truly be called a genius is Senaka Senanayake. I purchased a painting of his in 1983 during the period of ethnic disturbances. Mahinda, a brother of Kanthi's, took me to his house. A delightful personality, I was able to leisurely peruse many of his works and finally selected what I still consider to be one of his masterpieces.
This is of a young family totally unclad but not offensively nude. Later he stopped painting human figures , supposedly due to adopting the Sai Baba faith. My next meeting with him was in a Business Class lounge at Singapore airport. Although older , he was still a charming gentleman and a good conversationalist. 

RAJA SEGAR

This was another whose style was perhaps unusual but distinctive. Mahinda and I met him in the Cinnamon Lakeside hotel gallery and then accompanied him to his home and studio in Ja Ela. Although relatively unknown he already had one of his paintings on the back cover of a Reader’s Digest issue. I was able to acquire one large acrylic on canvas titled Two women at the well , which has undertones of Sapphism; also many water colours of rural women at work which perhaps romanticise their daily drudgery.

NIHAL SANGABO DIAS 

This charming and delightful man although deaf and mute radiates a sweetness and gentleness which permeates his paintings; his childhood had been spent by the sea and many of his paintings are of the sea and seafarers. But his rural scenes too are matchless. We met at the KalaPola, an annual open-air exhibition sponsored by John Keels, held at the Vihara MahaDevi park annually in the month of February. This is a must-visit if you are in Colombo at that time of the year. 

The Sapumal Foundation in Barnes Place Colombo 7 is also an absolute must for any art aficionado. It was founded by the late artist Harry Peris and is sited in the secluded house where he lived and worked. He was related to George Keyt by marriage. The current chairperson is my STC classmate Rohan de Soysa, a renowned photographer. Sapumal Foundation contains mainly the works of the ‘43 group which includes apart from Harry Peiris, George Keyt, Richard Gabriel, Ivan Peries, Aubrey Collette, Justin Deraniyagala , George Classen and Manjusri They were the pioneers of modern art in Ceylon. 

An artist whom I met and whose work I unreservedly admired was Iromi Wijewawradane. Her portraits of rural women are dazzling and colourful.

But for reasons beyond my recall, I did not purchase any of her works. 

Brushmen of the Bush

In the year 1981/82, I worked in the outback town of Broken Hill in New South Wales. Its fame lies in mining and being the birthplace of the mining giant BHP(Broken Hill Proprietary LTD). It’s also renowned for its vibrant arts scene and being the backdrop for the movie “ Priscilla, Queen of the Desert “.

Brushmen of the Bush was a group of five self-taught artists who also brought much fame to the town, the most renowned being Professor Hart. He has a gallery/ studio with a vast collection of his paintings and curiously a collection of old Rolls-Royces. Being a miner himself he had a strong affinity with them.The group as a whole by their exhibitions raised over a million and a half dollars which was donated to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

My favourite was Jack Absalom who had started off as a dingo and kangaroo shooter and was also a heavyweight boxer. Age had mellowed him and his depiction of the outback and its dwellers the First Australians is warm and sympathetic.

As a memento of our brief stay in BrokenHill I purchased his Night Camp which portrays a group of First Australians feasting around a campfire. 

Dedication

What began as an accolade to ND has now morphed into a paean for all our Brush People of the Blog. May their efforts continue to flourish and illuminate our Blog