Sri Lanka through Italian eyes

Maurizio Boscheri

Pheasants

While Maurizio lives millions of miles away from Sri Lanka his thoughts, his work and his art lives here. An Italian artist Maurizio Boscheri is an attentive connoisseur of animals’ species and vegetation and his paintings are depictions of animals that are facing near extinction.

“I chose to paint wildlife in Sri Lanka for the exuberant shapes and natural colors of endemism; I think from butterflies, birds to leopards, the colors and contrasts are very pronounced. Nowhere have I seen such a sight! My art is inspired by every corner of this beautiful island.”

Maurizio is also a conservationist at heart and has collaborated with a number of non-profit organizations in nature preservation.

He is an oil and mix medium painter. Once he finished painting he does wonders by adding various mediums. In doing so he creates surrealistic backgrounds. “I was struck by the ease in which you can admire the wildlife in parks, gardens, or even along the streets. Probably this peaceful coexistence between humans and animals is a cultural fact of Sri Lanka,” he said.

Maurizio unveils his latest collection of paintings with the Embassy of Italy to the public from August 17 to 27, 2012.

Leopard in Luce	Blue magpie

Sinharaja Rain Forest

A renowned art critic Leonardo Conti goes on to say, “Looking carefully at a number of paintings the eye manages to free itself slowly but surely from the animals in the foreground which even tend to become irritating in their banal, infantile affability. Often around the images something happens; something that is nothing to do with the animal.

Luminous halos appear like lamps seen through the mist on the airbrushed background almost as if the image was nothing more than an artificially lit stage set…”

In his book of paintings and works of art the animals rest on light surfaces, hinted at the intertwined branches adorned with fantastically shaped leaves and bejeweled with pearl like berries, dew drops and crystal breeze.

Agile and graceful cats, multicolored birds, small frogs and primordial insects move with cautious unselfconsciousness almost completely without traditional reference to perspective where every element of the real world is transformed to another place.

The exhibition will take place at 112, Havelock Road, Colombo 05.

The 90 years old building has been renovated to serve as a purpose built exhibition space to local and international artistes, designers and photographers.