Hands are made to give

Text and pictures Ishara Jayawardane

An Art exhibition by Asian International school. London O/Level exam art students was recently held at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery. In a world of strife these students have used their hands to give. They gave those who attended the exhibition a great pleasure through their drawings. These magical paintings were vivid and obviously labour of love and commitment.

"The exhibition was by the work that the children did for London O/Level art. I thought it was important because with this work even if they get an A, B or C they can enter any Art University in the world. The charts are there for the various things they have to do for example there is one chart for research: research an artist on the theme that they are doing. Sometimes the theme is very difficult for them to understand. So it takes time," AIS Art Teacher Nadine David said.

This is two-year training period. For some the results have already come. Some have finished their O'Ls, some are doing their O/L's and some are preparing for it - which falls to three classes.

We don't do A/L, because with this qualification they can get into any university.

I am very happy about the exhibition and I am very happy for the children. People who come here are also my past pupils.

I have eleven students all over the world. It is not a small exam (the paper is ten hours), because when they do it their progress is tremendous. In Sri Lanka we need to understand that there is so much study involved," stated David.

"There are all these different colours giving you a chance to paint in any colour you desire, said young A/L student, Andrea Jelinek said about her painting depicting different types of orchids.

"I just love painting and obviously Miss Nadine has inspired us all, she is a great art teacher and she helps us and encourages us a lot, s teen Safna Kumar, said.

"The painting is basically about Indonesia, so this is basically about Mount Semeru in Indonesia he says pointing to a painting. In my opinion they have improved from what they used to be (he said about his painting). Painting is quite colourful and very interesting," Lashlan Hemachandra adds. Daily News also spoke to young Chathula Kumarasinghe, one of the many talented artists who indulged me.

"My painting was inspired by the motions of the dancer their background and culture. Chathula said pointing to one of his paintings. It is still here and is still alive. You can't change that but what you can do is take a different twist on it, make it more, modern. It is inspired from what I have seen (basically what I saw and from the past, took what I saw now and combined them together "to give what has remained eternal throughout our heritage) so using that I drew my own pictures.