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Glory be to form and colour:
Awash with serenity
Aditha DISSANAYAKE
Guiding lights in her life
Nisansala is grateful to her father for
showing her to be courageous and stand up in life whenever and wherever
she fell and to her mother who was with her right throughout, like a
shadow. “It was my mother who endowed me with the feel for art and
beauty and my father who recognized my skills and opened up the path for
me.”
Her brothers Ravi and Mangala had always
encouraged and supported her while her sister Indumathi Kotelawela had
given her moral support. She is also grateful to ‘four wonderful
friends’: Dr Sinha Raja Tammita, Raschid Abdaur Rahman, Dr Tissa
Jayatilaka and Mihiri Kottegoda. She also conveys her heartfelt thanks
to the Ven Bhikkshuni Kusuma, for feeding her mind through sermons and
her heart with kindness. “She made her aramaya a home where I could
pursue my art.” She also believes her journey so far was possible due to
the support and love of her friends who have been with her through
sunshine and rain.
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Casaserena Gallery front view
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It all began on the day her brother walked into her office brimming
with euphoria. “I found it. The best place to have our boutique”. He
paused for effect. “But it’s too big for only the boutique. Would you
like to have a part of the building for an art gallery?” Nisansala
Karunaratne stared at her brother, Ravi, in disbelief. Having an art
gallery of her own had been a secret daydream for almost two decades.
Here was ‘Aiya’, unexpectedly offering the key to her dream world. “Yes.
Yes.” she answered him and fearing he might still not have heard, yelled
YES, not caring if all heads turned her way.
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Decorative art |
The daydream is no more. Reality has taken its place. Many changes to
the existing building (in order to restore the colonial architecture),
and many coats of paint later, the art gallery now stands quiet and
serene, amidst the never ceasing traffic and the blaring loud speakers
of lottery sellers, in Havelock Town, true to its name, Casa Serena (the
house of calm). Step inside to feel ‘tranquility’ written in invisible
ink wherever you gaze. If, however, you fail to notice the ‘writing’ on
the wall, gaze into the seven paintings by Nisansala and find yourself
engulfed with a sense of calm you would not have imagined possible in
the mid of a busy day.
Casa Serena has a namesake. In Redwood Valley California. Nisansala
recalls lodging in a room of this monastery with its 280 acres of forest
land when she was a student at San Jose State University. The sense of
peace and quiet she felt was so intense she says it is an experience she
would treasure for life. Now that she is back home she wants to share
this deep state of serenity she had known, with others, and she hopes
her own Casa Serena will pave the way. “There is another reason too for
choosing this name” she adds with a laugh. “My name. Nisansala. In
English it stands for everything that is serene.”
Moving onto reveal a phenomenon she had noticed when she had her
exhibition of paintings called Yatra in 2008, she says her thoughts,
which she had not translated into words nor shared with anyone else, had
centered on creating a ‘positive energy’ in the minds of the viewers. “I
wanted to make people feel happy and serene by looking at my work”.
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Sunflower |
Sunset |
To her surprise these were the very sentiments voiced by the
connoisseurs of art who flocked to the exhibition. “Some came to view
the paintings not once, but twice or thrice and they all said they felt
an immense sense of peace engulf them as they gazed into the paintings.”
The current collection titled “Visual Formations of Form and Colour”
with which Casa Serena opened its doors to the public, too was created
with this theme in mind. “But these paintings differ from my previous
work because here I revert to traditional designs; I also experiment
with natural pigments in these paintings” explains Nisansala.
One such is the painting of a village in the Knuckles range. She says
when she woke up in the morning on top of the mountains, the sight in
front of her was so breathtaking she simply gazed and gazed at her
surroundings till it got etched in her mind. Looking at the painting
today she is satisfied she has managed to convey the bond she felt with
Mother Nature that day, through her brushes and daubs of paint, onto a
canvas.
Deeply in love with nature, inspired by, in her own words, “Nature,
Nature, and again Nature”, she says she finds serenity in “the radiance
of green leaves, the glowing yellow and orange of the sun’s rays, the
dark brown of the rain soaked earth and the stunning blue of the
clouds”. To her, serenity is a treasure; a treasure she wishes to share,
through her work and through her gallery, with the whole wide universe.
So, attention all ‘treasure’ seekers; searching for that blissful
state of peace; yearning to escape into a land of tranquility. Step into
the Casa Serena. You’d not want to leave. |
