Brush, be my hero!

Priyanka KURUGALA

Nalinie Kodikara expresses herself through art. She is a social worker and teacher by profession. However art is her forte and she has been able to sharpen her hidden talents without any academic background. She held a painting exhibition recently under the theme, 'Pinsalata Pinsidu vewa', at the National Art Gallery in Colombo.

Nalinie Kodikara

As Nalinie says, many people admire and love art but only a few actually come up with any artistic creation of note during their lifetime. Limited time makes people restless. Even a small number of people with a true artistic sense could do something for mankind. It makes the world a beautiful place, she notes.

Barriers

Nalinie says that age is not a barrier if a person is committed. In Nigeria from 1980 to 1985 she rendered a great service as a social worker while building her career as a preschool teacher. She never gave up even at most difficult of times.

In 2010 she got a chance to work in Oman with her husband Somabandu Kodikara. He is the Principal of Sri Lankan School in Muscat and he was the former Principal of D S Senanayake College. She had ample time and commenced to draw pictures again. Even though Nalinie is in her sixties, she was able to make a good collection of artworks and she decided to hold an art exhibition.

"After 40 years I took the brush," she said, "I am not a professional. So I don't want to be conventional and create modern arts or abstract arts or any other pattern. I have experimented in many ways in arts, according to my life experiences. I communicate my impressions and feelings to the world."

"Culture and religious are my favourite subjects. I used to gather incidents for drawings based on the life of the Buddha, Jataka tales, folklore and Buddhist philosophy. Besides, many social happenings also inspire me."

There is an important experiment in arts. People generally use coffee as a drink. According to Nalinie nobody uses it as a colour in paintings. But she has done it. She was able to draw many important arts using coffee dust.

Many of her creations were made by oil paints on canvas. Some of them were created in acrylic on papers. Once in a way she had used make up crayon also for her work of arts. Sometimes charcoal, German ink, pencils, poster colour and coffee were ingredients.

"According to Prof J B Disanayaka, the chief guest of my exhibition, I had mixed art and Buddhism by brush.

I should pay my pleasant gratitude to Oman Ambassador Ashoka Girihagama and his wife Sudharma Girihagama who made this happen."

She plans to hold the exhibition in distant towns in the country before leaving.