Painter without peer
Ishara Jayawardane
Jayantha Silva knows that he has the moves. He believes that he has
no peer. A belief that is justified by his beautiful and detailed
portraits. Jayantha Silva’s talent overflows from his heart into his
paintings.
 Indeed
he himself feels that even in his schooldays his drawings were far
superior to that of his contemporaries and his drawings even superseded
the ability of his teachers. He stated that the children who submit
their drawings to newspapers today fall far behind him when he was at
their age. When he was about 10 years old what he drew was far superior
to what we see now in newspapers.
“I was a child artist and then when it comes to starting a career, I
thought that artists have no future, so I did the next best thing. I
went into commercial art. I started going up the ladder and founded my
own company. This was 20 years after leaving school. During that period
I hardly drew anything, and at one point I thought maybe I should try my
childhood love and I did a painting.” said Silva He was also impressed
that even after 20 years the artist in him was very much alive.
“After doing about 10 paintings I wanted to do an exhibition. My
first exhibition was in 2003 and that exhibition was a big success. I
sold about 2/3 of my paintings. There were about 40 paintings. The
others were total strangers who appreciated my paintings. Almost every
year I have had an exhibition. One of my buyers from Australia invited
me to Australia and I had two small exhibitions there: one in Sydney the
other in the Gold Coast. In India I took part in a trade fair. The
export development board gave me complete sponsorship and I went to New
Delhi as well. Those were the only two instances I went out of the
country.” stated Jayantha.
He does a lot of portraits and is into arts completely. People email
him their photographs and he draws their picture. He is mainly into
figurative art, which is his main theme. Jayantha’s first exhibition was
called ‘Expressions’.
“I have done quite a lot of paintings out of pastels depicting Sri
Lankan smiles. The Sri Lankan smile is world famous. When you say Sri
Lanka, it is associated with beautiful smiles.
“The first painting I did after the 20-year long interval, a mother
and child. I call it Rwanda. The feeling you get is unique. I can’t
explain it. You can’t buy this feeling even if you are a
multimillionaire.
It is better than a feeling you get after meditating. That is one of
the greatest things I got because that inner feeling making you feel you
are beyond the problems of the outside world. You can call that my
inspiration.” Explained Jayantha.
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| Jayantha
Silva |
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Jayantha’s
paintings |
“When he was 10 years old it was not children’s art that he did.
Nobody encouraged him, he was the youngest in the family and while
studying, invariably after about 15-20 minutes he would scribble
something. I was determined to go down that line. Now in Sri Lanka there
is appreciation and future for Art. Figurative art and portraits are my
love. And if you ask me that is the most difficult art.” Added Jayantha.
“I love to teach and I have got enough and more inquiries. Whenever I
have an exhibition that is a famous question. Can you teach? But I have
never learnt art. I don’t think I can be a good teacher. I don’t know
how to teach.
“So maybe some day I will read books and do it,” elaborated Jayantha.
The preview of Jayantha’s exhibition ‘Expressions 7- An Exhibition of
Figurative Art’ will be at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery on June 10 at 6
pm. The exhibition will remain open till June 12 from 10 am onwards.
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