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.
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| Sasa Jataka God king Sakra painting hare on moon |
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,
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.
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
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