Aug 04 2016.
views 1233‘Strokes at the Mews’ is the latest edition of Leo Art, an in-residence artists programme, happening on the 6th and 7th of August at Park Street Mews. Specifically presented to encourage and foster the local fine arts, Leo Art provides artists a platform to express their creative ideas, form relationships with agency teams and bring their art to a wider audience.
With 20 local artists set to present at the Leo Art Exhibition, we spoke to few artists about their art and their involvement in the exhibition;
Dileepa Jeewantha
Born in Galle, Dileepa has a Diploma in Multi Disiplanery Design, Graphic Design and Multimedia.
When did you get into the field of art?
I got in to the field of art after finishing my school education.
What kind of art do you specialise in?
Well, my art can only be explained in a sense of style that I work with. When I’m working on my art I draw what I am trying to own and what I’m trying to disown.
What is your inspiration for your work?
When I look back, I can say that the inspiration to my work has been none other than me.
How does it feel to be showcasing at Leo Art?
To be honest, I feel that Leo Art is a golden opportunity to send our work of art to the public which in turn becomes a kind of a conversation we can hold with the masses.
Anura Dahanayaka
Anura, lived in Kandy and studied at Mahanuwara Dharmaraja College.
When did you get into the field of art?
In 1991, I was working at an office, my wife (at that time my fiancé) saw my small drawings which I had done during my leisure time and she encouraged me to follow my passion in painting. Since then I started to paint and I became a self-taught artist in 1993. I held an art exhibition at Ceylon National Art Gallery in Colombo 07 and after that I participated in several Art exhibitions organized by Ceylon Society of Arts, the George Keyt Foundation and Mount Castle Gallery. Meanwhile I joined Vibhavi Academy of Fine Art and then I held a solo exhibition at Alliance Francise de Colombo.
What kind of art do you specialise in?
I work with water colours and oil.
What is your inspiration for your work?
Well, my kind of paintings I usually like to paint working people such as fishermen, load carriers among others and a few landscapes.
How does it feel to be showcasing at Leo Art?
I am so very grateful. For this show I would be presenting a few water colour paintings of mine on fishermen.
Thushara Dep
Schooled in Tangalle, Thushara worked in Colombo as an Art Director to several companies before attaching himself to the MAS Holdings Corporate Communications Team where he is currently employed.
When did you get into the field of art?
Art has always been a hobby to me but I pursued it as a profession since I was 18 years old. I think the reason why I pursued art is because it is the best way to express myself.
What kind of art do you specialise in?
I specialise in paintings and sculptures.
What is your inspiration for your work?
I’m inspired by Marcell Duchamp and Francis Bacon.
How does it feel to be showcasing at Leo Art?
Leo Art is amazing platform for artists such as us to showcase our talent. At the show I will be by portraying personal and social stories relevant to our audience through the human form. The human body is but an expression of the true internal conflicts that arise within the human mind. The chronicle of your life that you carry within is etched in your external form. The collection of human contours in my paintings represents the struggle to live in a world made routine by the animalistic instinct to survive.
Vikum Bandara
Born in Balangoda, Vikum studied at R/Balangoda Ananda Meithree College and later focused on art and is now the holder of a special degree in painting.
When did you get into field of art?
Well, since my childhood I loved art. At a very early stage I chose Fine Arts as my career interest and I studied it with great enthusiasm. That same enthusiasm is actually what led me to follow my higher education at the University of Visual and Performing Arts and it was there that I developed my artistic talent.
What kind of art do you specialise in?
I prefer art in abstract form to express my own feeling because I think it’s a very powerful style rather than the conventional realistic style. I think art has developed to a higher level to this age because today modern art predominate the art field and it has no conventional barriers. So it allows artists such as myself to freely express themselves. I’m so very fond of this style and I admire it in modern art. So I use the abstract form to express very complex social issues freely on the canvas.
What is your inspiration for your work?
Actually colours inspire my painting because I always think that I can express myself and current political, economic and social issues through colours. I attempt to compose colours very freely and rationally on the canvas with my own techniques and this particular way inspires me to work on paintings. When I was studying at the University I eagerly studied art history and I observed various art works of many artistic. Specially the work of Mark Rothcko, Jean Michel Basquiat and Georges Braque. Because their work is so simple and very powerful, their techniques inspired me to make my own style.
How does it feel to be showcasing at Leo Art?
This is a good opportunity for the artists to show their creative work. LeoArt society not only presents artists but also broadcast events so I think this is a valuable opportunity for any Sri Lankan artist.
Chiranthi Nayani Gunasekara
Born in Galle, Chiranthi is a graduate of the University of the Visual and Performing Arts.
When did you get into the field of art?
As my mother is an art teacher, from childhood I had an opportunity to develop my born skills of art. After I entered the Faculty of Visual Art I enhanced my skills. After that I gradually started to work as an artist.
What kind of art do you specialise in?
I have done my specialization in graphics art, along with painting.
What is your inspiration for your work?
Mostly I’m inspired by graphic art and technique. I have done experiments with the techniques I’ve learnt which I have used in my paintings. I feel that this is a strong media of communication.
How does it feel to be showcasing at Leo Art?
I feel that it is a great opportunity to express and communicate my feelings. My theme is “Dreams”. These are thoughts that every human experience throughout their life. Some of them achieve them and some don’t.
Piyal Ranjan Alwis Weerasinghe
Piyal, 57, schooled at Dharmaraja College, Mampe, Piliyandala and is an artist by profession.
When did you get into the field of art?
When I was working at Maduru Oya irrigation project in 1982 I saw Mr. Janaka Gunathilaka’s painting which were being sold to foreigners. His paintings expressed the natural environment and natural sceneries and I got interested in painting and started my path since on that day step by step.
What kind of art do you specialise in?
I think that I have specialized in oil painting on canvas by various sceneries specifically focussing on the rural culture, countryside sceneries, wildlife etc.
What is your inspiration for your work?
As per globalization, environment moderation, new technical life styles where we are critically losing our elegant rural culture, rural lifestyles and wildlife too. At present we cannot see the real natural environment which was we felt and saw in our childhood. It has been a nice painting in my mind. I’m forever loving that image and it inspires me to paint paintings that relates to it.
How does it feel to be showcasing at Leo Art?
The Leo Art exhibition gives a big opportunity to artist to enhance and show our skills to the world as well as making giving an opportunity to perceive and entertain “Rural living Art” to the next generation. For the exhibition my art work is based on natural environment, rural living, countryside and wildlife.
Sanjaya Senevirathne
Sanjaya studied in Pilimatalawa Central College and has a BSc in Fine Arts from the University of Visual and Performing Arts.
When did you get into the field of art?
I’ve been a professional artist for more than 10 years now. It was always my childhood ambition to become a teacher. Painting is based on love and that made me want to become an artist.
What kind of art do you specialise in?
Abstract arts.
What is your inspiration for your work?
I paint about love. Everyone loves materialistic things. I want to ask them to love spiritual things through my paintings.
How does it feel to be showcasing at Leo Art? What kind of art pieces can one expect? Any theme?
It’s a great initiative. I have participated for all seasons of this. Leo Art is a great opportunity that exposes the local talent and art to the world. My art pieces are about my ‘Love Laundry’ series.
Sameera Buddhika
Sameera received his education from the St. Aloysius Seminary in Borella and is the bearer of an HND in Fine Arts and Graphic Designing from the City of London Academy College.
When did you get into the field of art?
I loved the arts ever since childhood. I got into the field in 2005 because I had the skills and because I loved the arts and I believe it’s a gift from the gods.
What kind of art do you specialise in?
Well previously I experimented with carvings and portraits but today I specialize in Modern Art and Abstract.
What is your inspiration for your work?
I study other artists a lot. My biggest inspiration is an Australian artist called Walker.
How does it feel to be showcasing at Leo Art? What kind of art pieces can one expect? Any theme?
I have been in this field since 2005 but I didn’t have a good market. Leo Art is a programme with great quality, which I have not seen anywhere else and I think it’s an essential thing for the Sri Lankan industry because it helps artists to build a name. They’ve given me an opportunity to work with some of the best artists in the field so I’m very grateful to Leo Burnett. I will be presenting a series of abstract painting.
Susil Senanayake
Born in Kegalle, Susil attended the University of Visual and Performing Arts.
When did you get into the field of art?
I loved art since I was small and I held my first exhibition in 2004. People appreciated my work. I think that’s what made me an artist.
What kind of art do you specialise in?
Abstract paintings.
What is your inspiration for your work?
The things I learnt at the University of Visual and Performing arts inspired me to become an artist. I studied about international artists and after seeing them I was inspired to build my own style.
How does it feel to be showcasing at Leo Art? What kind of art pieces can one expect? Any theme?
It’s very good. There are not much opportunities for artists in Sri Lanka so not a lot of people become artists because we don’t get enough appreciation. But something like this brings a lot of benefits to the Sri Lankan Artists. I will be presenting a series of abstract paintings based on the theme Diyawanna Lake.
Renuka Dias
Having studied in Colombo, Renuka followed a 3 year course on Art and Sculpture at the Colombo Arts Theatre. Currently she is a teacher at Dematagoda Royal International and Panadura Renuka Dias Art Academy.
When did you get into the field of art?
I loved art since I was small and my mother was also good in painting. Observing the environment made me want to draw what I see. This helped me a lot to learn more about the field of art. Mainly my love and strong passion towards art made me pursue the dream of becoming an artist.
What kind of art do you specialise in?
Modern arts, landscaping and real arts.
What is your inspiration for your work?
My mother was my biggest inspiration. My mother would ask me to draw something whenever I was doing anything productive and continuously pushed me to improve. My mother wanted me to become an artist one day; she would always show me my mistakes and tell me how to improve. Most importantly she always appreciated my work which helped me to believe in myself.
How does it feel to be showcasing at Leo Art? What kind of art pieces can one expect? Any theme?
I’m very happy about the exhibition. All of us feel appreciated. If things like this can continue, many more will pursue their dream of becoming an artist. We get to meet and interact with a lot of other artists. We get to learn new things which help us to upgrade our standards. My heartfelt gratitude to everyone at Leo Burnett. At the show, I will present a modern art called ‘Nage Arunalu’, a picture of a scene in Polonnaruwa and of Isurumuniya.
Lasantha Kumara
Having studied Art and Sculpture at the University of Visual and Performing arts, Lasantha currently lives in Kegalle and is an art teacher.
When did you get into the field of art?
I loved art ever since I was little. I studied art till my O/L’s but because we didn’t have Arts as a subject in our A/L classes, a teacher called Wijaya Hettiarachchi said that if 2 students chose arts, he would start teaching arts for A/L’s. This incident is what decided my destiny. It’s what made me become what I am today. Additionally, Professor Dharmasena from the university and Jagath Weerasinghe guided me to follow the courses and get qualified, which helped me in life to get to where I am today.
What kind of art do you specialise in?
Abstract paintings.
What is your inspiration for your work?
I grew up in an agricultural environment in Dehiaththakandiya. Threshing machines and those landscapes inspired me and I continue to paint them even after I moved away from there.
How does it feel to be showcasing at Leo Art?
It’s a great initiative and we are proud to be a part of it. It means a lot to us. Mr.Ranil De Silva and Leo Burnett has given us a chance to come out of our everyday lives and do something for art and also the opportunity to meet other artists. There’s no particular theme. I’m presenting 4 art pieces. They’re about the life of a teacher, a sculpture art of a Jataava, an abstract painting of Pottuvil beach and Lord Ganesh.
Sanjeewa Kumara
Born in 1971 in Colombo, Sanjeewa Kumara is a visiting lecturer for visual art at the University of Kelaniya University. He holds a MFA from the Netherlands and has had many solo and group exhibitions, inside and outside of Sri Lanka.
When did you get into the field of art?
My art journey began at 6 when my father, an art teacher, gave me oils and pastels. At the age of 16 I won my first art prize in 1988. As a result of winning this, my piece was published on the front pages of major newspapers all around the country. This at the time was confirmation of my abilities and only further fuelled my passion for art, so I studied ‘art’ for my O'Level’s and A'Level’s at my school in Gampaha. During school, I practiced copying the works of Vincent van Gogh as there was a van Gogh painting hung in the house, and also copying traditional paintings found in Buddhist temples. After school, I used to attend the small academy of art that my father ran at home and this is where I came across a lot of different classical styles of art as well as visual elements of the painting.
What kind of art do you specialise in?
In recent years my art works are becoming abundant with flying six-legged elephants, floating hunters, flower paradise, and all sorts of creative creatures, which have made the paintings increasingly colourful. I paint no such paradise. I paint something extremely more difficult: their echo! As with the great ancient Europeans such as H.Bosch, P Bruegel the Elder, Jan van Eyck, Albrecht Dürer , Caravaggio, El Greco, Casper David Friedrich and etc, it is not about the arrival, but the excerpt from paradise. I make countless references to things disappearing into the depths of space, to the cut off at the edges and to falling out of utensils of a passing time. They are almost "moving" images. When man went to the sky and to the moon this ‘moving’ feeling came to the painting more than ever. So I try to synchronize them into their own, unique visual language. I try to re-imagine, re-invent new form, new identity and new landscape and it becomes a self-styled project.
What is your inspiration for your work?
I like to work with the traditional medium of oil paints. I’m inspired by art history and I want to be part of the line of development of man - from the cave painters 35,000 years ago to the present because essentially we use the same tools - a stick with some hair on the end of it, minerals from the earth mixed with some oil. I love that I'm doing the same thing that people have done always. Of course, oil painting is characteristically slow, however I try to react fast. I have a rather direct and fast relationship and attitude towards pictures. What is special about painting pictures is that I can lie with it endlessly. There are no boundaries. Painting does not start from reality, and that’s what makes it unique.
How does it feel to be showcasing at Leo Art?
Today, painting is recognized as a traditional media. But painting still has specific capacities of its own to discover and exploit. So Leo Art understands that. At Leo Art I will bring the viewer to a surreal reservoir of images of Sri Lankan history, the furniture of a bygone colonial world, Egyptian art, rococo art, Indian legends, Greek philosophy, planets and space, sea animals, dinosaurs, and secret languages spoken by the painters only. I titled this series ‘Re-Imagining Pictures’ as the paintings reveal the radical ambiguity of fantasy. This new series acts as a challenge to the Western hegemony of art and is a self-protest against conceptual and minimal art.
Prageeth Rathnayake
Prageeth is currently working on national television as an Art Director and Set Design Artist and is also an external lecturer at the University of Visual Arts.
When did you get into the field of art?
My father is a local artist and from my childhood, my love for art was influenced by him.
What kind of art do you specialise in?
I really like painting. I would say I’ve done more training for painting.
What is your inspiration for your work?
My theory is called conceptual art. Conceptually, any inside knowledge is hard to build. It's exhausting work. We have to think and practice. I try to find the answers for the questions like how can I draw and what I draw? My subject is the crisis of identity.
How does it feel to be showcasing at Leo Art?
Leo Art concept is fantastic! We get to fly with art and humanity. It’s a unique service for the art market and the art culture.
Vimukthi Sahan Sanaraweera
Vimukthi studied designing at the University of Visual and Performing Arts and is currently working on a freelance basis.
When did you get into the field of art?
I got into the field in 2007. I have had the love for designing since I was small so that made me want to become an artist.
What kind of art do you specialise in?
Abstract paintings and performing arts.
What is your inspiration for your work?
I paint about the society. The way I read the society, the way I see it, the issues I have, I put them out in the form of art.
How does it feel to be showcasing at Leo Art?
It’s a very good event. I have participated for this 4 times now. I’ll be showing 3 art pieces based on the society.
J. C. Rathnayake
Having studied at Royal Central College in Polonnaruwa, he attended the University of Visual and Performing Arts.
When did you get into the field of art?
I loved arts since my childhood. That’s why I continued doing arts. I chose Arts at the university as well and it gave me the opportunity to study art indepth.
What kind of art do you specialise in?
I did the degree in Print making and then got into Painting.
What is your inspiration for your work?
Painting is my profession. That is a challenge; I depend solely on my paintings and that requires a lot of self-confidence.
How does it feel to be showcasing at Leo Art?
This is very good. I participated in the first season. This is a good opportunity for the clients to get to know the artists. For the exhibitionI have done 4 paintings. The difference of my paintings and other artists’ paintings are that the techniqueused is different.
Vajira Gunawardena
Vajira has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Kelaniya and is currently a Visiting Lecturer at the University of the Visual and Performing Arts.
When did you get into the field of art?
I used to draw in school and at fifteen I worked with my school friends on amural at the main public library in Colombo. By this time, I was quite fond of art andfascinated by the art world, and as I am often the impulsive not thinking of repercussions type, Iwent against my parents and pursued art as a career.
What kind of art do you specialise in?
My work addressed issues and questions about culture and identity. The occurring symbols and signs in my paintings are deliberately open-ended in their interpretation. My work is exploring the notion of language as it relates to a story type of urban signifier signs. My interest is in encouraging viewers to acknowledge the way in which differing cultures, communities and individuals reveal and define their identities as well as concentrate on subjects such as politics, metaphysic, culture, history, consumerism, myths and ethics etc. Art is a form of communication that can build bridges between communities. The internal body of my works is interested in using figurative and stencil technique, the characters that surrounded this narrative urban wall as a metaphor for loudness. So the colour, shape and signs have been inspired as symbolism of human senses Fragmented, Liquefaction, Horror, Displacement, Seduction, Emptiness, Complexity, Sex, Love, Simulation, Rhythm, and Beauty within the chaos of our reality.
What is your inspiration for your work?
I have attempted to create a new language of expression which is an influence of varied styles such as surrealism, expressionism, primitivism and street art.
How does it feel to be showcasing at Leo Art?
This is my first entry to Leo arts that amazing platform for the contemporary artists to exhibiting their works. I think this event is a better gift for the local art lovers as it introduces a variety of art work.
Chamila Gamage
Born in Beliatta, Chamila graduated with a BFA Special on Sculpturing from the University of Visual and Performing Arts.
When did you get into the field of art?
I have loved the field of art since I was small.
What kind of art do you specialise in?
Arts and sculptures. I want to present something new. I think a talented artist is someone who is willing to experiment and is someone who is aware of what is happening around them.
What is your inspiration for your work?
I’m inspired by how I perceive the society around me.
How does it feel to be showcasing at Leo Art?
There’s not much support for artists like us in here and it’s very difficult to organize an exhibition so I’m very grateful to Leo Burnett for doing this!
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