Artists go camping

Ruwanthi ABEYAKOON

Harnessing creativity scattered in the region is what the SAARC Artist Camp and Exhibition of Paintings 2012 was all about. Many artists from the region arrived here last week to participate at this event. The SAARC Artist Camp and Exhibition of Paintings was held in Sri Lanka for the second consecutive year.

Soundarie David	G. L. W. Samarasinghe

Organised by the SAARC Cultural Centre together with volunteer students from the University of Visual and Performing Arts, this was an attempt to bring together artists of the SAARC Region not only to share their creative expressions but also to share knowledge on the rich cultural background they hail from in the form of art.

Exploring SL

‘Nature and Art at its best’, being the theme for this years camp, gave the opportunity for the young artists to explore the breathtaking sites of beautiful Sri Lanka while sharing their experience and knowledge with each other.

Twenty eight artists from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives and Sri Lanka participated at this event. G. L. W. Samarasinghe, Director, SAARC Cultural Centre, said SAARC Artists Camp is organised annually to promote cultural cooperation and to bring the people of South Asia closer and to project the distinct cultural identity of South Asia.

“This is one of the major events organised by the SAARC Cultural Centre, to give an opportunity to renowned and young artists in the region to showcase their contemporary tastes and visual cultures. This event will help them to improve their creative talents and understand new trends. They also get the opportunity to interact with each other and identify new developments in the field,” Samarasinghe said.

Mixed media

He added the artists also can find a good market for their works through the exhibition. “The Artist Camp is a good experience for the artists of the member states to experience multicultural approach for paintings. The artists who participated this year got the opportunity to showcase their talents to the world through their paintings,” Samarasinghe said.

Neha Mehta, a young artist from India said this event gave her a good exposure and the opportunity to explore Sri Lanka. “I have been involved in doing paintings and sculptures for the last seven years. I do sculptures and I paint using mixed media to create an embossed effect on my works,” she said. As Neha says her inspiration comes from life and its nuances which exude a distinct energy for her. Thus her works have a metaphorical makeover and open themselves up for several ways of interpretation. Sanjay Sengupta also from India works on family oriented painting. Storing up memories of happy moments that comes across in life, he later paints them on canvas. “I enjoyed participating at the camp and exhibition. I met a lot of artists from the region. This gave me the opportunity to share ideas with them,” Sengupta said.

Eight artists flew down from Bangladesh to participate at the camp. Anisuzzaman, Assistant Professor, Department of Printmaking, Faculty of Fine Art, University of Dhaka expressed his views on the camp. “The camp brought together many artists working on various fields of art. It provided a valuable opportunity for artists to experience the different cultures in the region,” Anisuzzaman said.

Sanjay Sengupta	Kishor Kumar Das
Neha Mehta	Sangeeta Murthy

M. M. Maiz Uddin who hails from Meherpur in Bangladesh said the camp was educative while creating a platform to share his ideas with other artists.

Foremost teacher

There were also six artists from the islands of sun, sand and sea – Maldives. Inspired by the infinite shades of blue and turquoise and the dazzling underwater coral gardens, these artists were able to share their experience with others of the region. Aminath Sofeenaz is one such artist who says Maldives has been her foremost teacher. “We are surrounded by so much blue colour! About 99 per cent sea,” she says. Inspired by her native environment and the vast expanse of the blue ocean, she captures moments that gives her inner peace and harmony. In spite of working as an illustrator and Designer for the curriculum books in the Education Development Centre in Maldives, Sofeenaz engages in painting during her free times.

R. M. Dharmasena, H. M. P. B. Herath, Sarath Gunasiri, Jagath Ravindra and Sunethpriya Aravinda were the Sri Lankan artists who participated at the camp.

The Artists Camp and Exhibition of Paintings which commenced on June 7 at the Waters Edge, Battaramulla concluded on June 10 with the exhibition of paintings held at the J. D. A. Perera Gallery, Colombo 07. SAARC Cultural Centre facilitates many individuals and groups in various fields of interest to meet and interact and caters to all forms of art such as performing arts, visual art and literature.