Wild stipplings and wonderful abstracts

Friday, 10 October 2014 12:02 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

‘Wild and Wonderful,’ an art exhibition featuring abstract and stippling pieces of art by Teruni Wikramanayake and Anya Ratnayaka, will be held at Lionel Wendt Art Centre, 18 Guilford Cresent, Colombo 7 on 11 and 12 October from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. In the run-up to their exhibition Teruni and Anya spared a moment to share their journey in art.

Teruni Wikramanayake

Teruni Wikramanayake was a preschool teacher at Ladies’ College and is now a fulltime mother of her 8-year-old daughter. She started painting at the age of 12 and her first teacher was Latifa Ismail of Cora Abraham’s Art School. At present she is guided by Prof. Sarath Chandrajeewa, Dean of the Faculty of Visual Arts of the University of Visual and Performing Arts. Teruni loves Jackson Pollock’s work since his pieces are unique and cannot be copied and Rothko, Monet and Matisse are the other artists she favours. She had studied art for her Advanced Level exams and fondly remembers her teachers who guided her in art; “I have been guided by Latiffa Ismail, A Croatian lady by the name of Dora who now lives in New York, and presently by Prof. Sarath Chandrajeewa who has given me a lot of confidence in my work and abstract style of painting.” Having experimented with oils crayons and pieces of fabric of different textures Teruni mainly uses Acrylics for her art and creates abstract paintings, “I mostly paint from my subconscious. My work is unique and cannot be duplicated! I have no preconceived ideas before I start. I create my work at the spur of the moment.”

Anya Ratnayaka

Anya Ratnayaka is a wildlife conservationist working at the Environmental Foundation Ltd., she is currently conducting research on fishing cats found in Colombo’s urban wetlands.

When asked about her favourite artists she said: “To be honest, I don’t have any. I mean I was never a person who read up about artists and techniques. I don’t think I have ever owned an art book! I just draw.” A self taught artist Anya started drawing at the age of seven, “It was actually Aunty Teruni who assisted me in drawing my first realistic bird.” At the age of 12 she attended art classes at Nadine David and continued for a few years before stopping art completely until she entered her final year at College, “When I took it up again, I was pleasantly surprised that I hadn’t lost my skill!” Speaking of her drawing mediums and techniques Anya explained that she uses pens and Indian ink when drawing: “The technique I use to draw is called stippling, which involves the use of dots to create texture and depth. It involves a lot of attention to detail which is probably why I was drawn to this form of art.” With the nature of her job Anya works with wildlife. After seeing a fishing cat for the first time in 2012, she started to observe and research on small wild cats. “Naturally seeing them and reading up on these cats I became fixated on drawing them. I wanted to master their form and proportions, so that they looked alive. Another thing is that not many people know that there are other cats outside the realm of the big cats, so I wanted to try and raise awareness for small cats through my art.”