Tranquility and contemplation in watercolour
Sunetha Kannangara
will hold her first solo art exhibition Fleeting Moments Impressions in
Wwatercolour at the Lionel Wendt Gallery on November 27 and 28 from 9am
to 7pm.
A talented artist from her schooldays, Sunetha rediscovered the joy
of watercolour painting after she retired from a busy career in the
corporate sector in the UK and Sri Lanka.
She studied Design Print at INGRIN Institute of Printing and Graphics
and was awarded the INGRIN gold medal for Design for Print - 2003.
Working in graphic design kindled her interest in art and it was not
long before she switched from 'mouse', stylus and Graphic Tablet back to
paint, brush and paper.
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Yapahuwa |
Watercolour was the medium of her childhood days and she naturally
reverted to painting in watercolour. She sought the guidance of artists
whose styles matched her vision and she studied watercolour painting
under a well known art teacher Tamara Damayanthi, the teacher-in-charge
at Ananda College, a leading boys' school in Colombo. Under the able
guidance of her teacher she mastered the intricacies of traditional
watercolour techniques. Thereafter she studied under Susan Herron at the
Art League, Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, USA, where she was exposed to
the latest techniques in contemporary watercolour painting. She received
invaluable guidance and encouragement from her daughter Sharmila a
talented artist herself and from Ranjit Perera a well known artist who
has held several solo art exhibitions in oils.
Medium and style
Sunetha uses the best art materials for her work. She uses Winsor &
Newton Artists' Water colours and Grumbacher and Da Vinci paints. She
uses Aqvarelle Arches paper which is the paper widely used by
professional artists in USA as it stands up well to traditional and
contemporary techniques in watercolour painting. She uses large brushes
and paints on large sheets of paper as it gives her the freedom to
express herself better even though it is difficult to handle on account
of the very fluid nature of the medium. She limits her work to 24" X 18"
paper which she admits is the largest paper she can handle comfortably.
Rewarding environs
Painting keeps her totally focused and living in the moment, almost
like meditation -- hands, eyes and mind in perfect moment-to-moment flow
with the element of time losing its relevance. She interprets everyday
scenes and objects in a way that invites the viewer to expand their
horizons thereby elevating the ordinary to the extraordinary making even
the most mundane subjects dance before your eyes.
Sunetha believes there is beauty everywhere if you only pause to
observe. Specific beautiful moments are also fleeting and momentary; one
has to be quick to grasp and appreciate it before it is gone. In an ever
changing world nothing is permanent - this is a universal law.
Although there is constant change there is beauty in every facet of
change. In her collection of paintings she has tried to capture the
beautiful impressions of many such fleeting moments to instill
tranquility and contemplation and to connect people to nature's beauty
and healing and rejuvenating powers.
Sunetha started to paint purely for her own pleasure but has since
decided to direct her creative energy to support her own social
responsibility projects which she refers to as HeART (Art for Social
Responsibility). Currently she is involved in three projects: provides
scholarships to needy students (four students from Moneragala and two
from Colombo); provides assistance to a Home for intellectually
challenged adults located in Kegalle; and supports The Animals Welfare &
Protection Association (AWPA) in their rescue, sterilization and and
vaccination programs and in the maintenance of the animal shelters.
Sunetha plans to use the net proceeds from the exhibition to
strengthen the support to all three projects. |
