From nature to portraits; Gunasiri Kolombage’s canvas of diversity
“Diyasayame Geethaya”, artist Gunasiri Kolombage’s latest exhibition will take place at the Lionel Wendt Art Centre on March 30 and 31 from 9 a.m. to 6.30 p.m.
Kolambage will exhibit over 50 aquarelles – watercolour paintings, evidence of his mastery over what many consider a most troublesome medium for any painter, due to its quality of transparency that rejects correction; every brush stroke is a final one.
Here, the painter offers great diversity to art lovers, a variety of themes, subjects and even objects, from the heat of the lime kilns to the cool waters of the Nuwara Eliya lake, orchids and portraits of greats like Lester James Pieres and Tissa Abeysekera.
As a young boy attending Rambukkana School, he recollects that a wall in his home was decorated with pictures of animals, naturally hostile to each other – cat and mouse, cobra and mongoose – playing together in bonds of harmony. It could have been his father’s way of inculcating the value of co-existence in his children. Fascinated by the pictures, he began daydreaming of being an artist. His father, being a sort of connoisseur of arts in his time, was acquainted with several artists.
Years later he entered the College of Fine Arts, Colombo, and after graduation, joined J. Walter Thomson Ltd in 1969. The same year he won the second prize and three consolation prizes in the Shell Painting Competition. He went on to work at A.J.N. Seneviratne company and subsequently Ranjith Jayasuriya Associates, both leading advertising companies at the time. Kolambage devised many successful campaigns for prestigious clients and also worked as an Art Director for Concept Communications, Brisbane, Australia. He has travelled widely in Europe and Australia and also exhibited widely.
His indefatigable hand is always ready for more work. He says it’s his mission in his life.