Artistic glimpse into the society

Nipuni Wimalapala

Art is a meditation which makes you calm, creative and attentive is what she believes. She mixes art with humanity to give the maximum outcome of her inborn talent to the society.

Geetha Seneviratne, an outstanding artiste talented in every form of art, loves nature, animals, kids and every human being.

Some of Geetha's paintings Pictures by Nissanke Wijeratna

Geetha's art exhibition, 'Symphony of Colour', will be inaugurated at Alliance Francaise de Kandy on January 18 at 6 pm. Central province Governor Tikiri Kobbekaduwa will declare the exhibition open. The exhibition will remain open from January 19 to 28 from 8.30 am to 6 pm. The guest of honour will be Second Secretary Assistant to Indian High Commissioner Vinod Passy.

Many themes

Her paintings come under the theme, symphony of colour, and she has given priority to black and white line drawings which have a good demand. She has done painting in different forms. The meanings and expressions of paintings are quite impressive and most of them are either related to nature or human beings.

Animals are also given a noticeable place by the artist. Human figures, natural sceneries, typical folk views, religion-based paintings are seen in her paintings which prove her capacity is wide and her expression is diversified into many themes.

She started her career when she was a child. Art was her utmost interest and hobby which later turned out to be her profession. Her career expands for about 40 years.

Her artistic family background backs Seneviratne's talent.

Her mother was a multi talented figure while her elder brother excelled art which inspired her to become what she is today.

She excels in paintings, line drawings, studio sculpture, studio pottery, garden sculpture, book illustrations, and interior décor for public venues.

Her medium in painting is oil with a few acrylics thrown in and she uses black and white line drawings.

She has done a lot of artistic work for hotels, individuals and companies.

Career

Seneviratne has carried out her first solo art exhibition in 1973, more as an attempt to find out people's reaction to her expressions. Being encouraged, she has held solo exhibitions in 1976, 1977 and 1981, 1986 and 1998 at the Samudra Gallery, Lionel Wendt and the National Art Gallery respectively. She has exhibited her talents outside the country as well in New Delhi, Osaka and Bulgaria.

Among all of these works, her best achievement is when she was honoured by the Presidential Award for the best Sculpture at the 79th Annual Exhibition of the Ceylon Society of Arts in 1983. Her sculpture 'Dushkarakriya' which is 1 ft. 3 inches in size won the award. Apart from her professional life, she loves teaching art to children.

Geetha Seneviratne

Especially she does it as a hobby and a charity work. She has been a teacher at Highlands College, Nugegoda, for a few years and was inspired by her teaching career still she carries out art classes to little kids. She believes that kids can be concentrated, more thoughtful and creative via art.

She goes to child care institutes or parentless kids in children's homes and teaches art free of charge as a social work.

And also she always gives a percentage of her profit from art to those who are under privileged.

She advises parents to get kids involved in art since it's a kind of meditation, a form of self discipline which gives satisfaction. Through art, children can be mixed up with society, move with nature which implant good values to a kid's life.

According to her, every child should try to involve in any form of art at least as a hobby while doing their serious studies.

Seneviratne is very keen on upcoming young artistes and she always gives her helping hand to them to come up with their novel creativities.

She stresses that there is lack support for them from the society and respective authorities sometimes since young artistes have to go through a lot of difficulties in displaying and selling their paintings.

She suggests that there should be a specific proper place for them to keep and display their paintings which will encourage them to be more enthusiastic in the subject to become professionals.

She conducts workshops and competitions and consultancy work for various organizations and she volunteers for the Child Protection Society.