Nature shrinks as capital grows. The growth of the market cannot solve the very crisis it creates. - Vandana Shiva

Great Minds:

Legendary artist, poet and writer: George Keyt

He laughed when certain art critics said he paints as well as the French artist Paul Gauguin and called him the Gauguin of Ceylon. He used Mediterranean blues and juicy tomato reds tinged with yellow and orange to instill meaning into the hard and mechanical principles of cubism(a 20th century style in art). His subjects were the Kandyan landscape, the people and their culture.

George Percival Sproule Keyt, whose life spans the whole of the last century (1901 to 1992)was the son of Henry Keyt and Constance Evelyn Sproule. Born on April 17, 1901 he grew up in a house situated close to the Malwatta Vihara, and was educated at Trinity College, Kandy. As a young man under the influence of the poet scholar Rev. Pinnawela Dhirananda Thero, who introduced him to Buddhist thought and Sinhala poetry, George Keyt turned his back on the stifling values of the Westernised class into which he was born. Dressed in a dhoti, with his hair which fell in ringlets round the ears parted in the middle, through gray blue eyes he looked at the lush beauty of the countryside around Kandy, observed the peasants and captured the serenity and calm of village life on to his paintings.

The life-size paintings on the walls of the outer shrine of Gothami Vihara, in Borella, featuring the Life and Times of the Buddha made Nobel Prize winning poet, Pablo Neruda say Keyt’s paintings express grandeur ‘and radiate an aura of intensely profound feelings.”

George Keyt’s earliest drawings appeared in the school magazines of Trinity College, and Ceylon newspapers. He started work as a professional painter in about 1927 encouraged by Lionel Wendt. In the 1930s he was influenced by Hindu mythology and art and Buddhism. He was an original member of the 43 Group of Artists which earned an identity for Sri Lanka in international art.

In 1954 his work was exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London by Sir Herbert Read and Sir Roland Penrose, and afterwards this exhibition traveled to the Art Institute in Rotterdam.

His paintings have been displayed in art galleries in India, and in many leading capitals of the world, and are to be found in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, The British Museum, London as well as various public collections in India and Sri Lanka and private collections worldwide.

Not only an artist of international fame, Keyt was also a poet, a translator and a prolific writer to magazines and newspapers in the 1920s, 30s and 40s. He also wrote on Sinhalese folk lore and read avidly on Hindu mythology and Indian literature.

To this day, his paintings which convey words and sounds and moods through curves and lines prove him to be a genius whose work belongs to all times as well as to our own period. George Keyt’s words written in the Times of Ceylon in 1958 about art, best describes his own work. “How could anyone say anything outmoded about things that cannot grow old? Good art is always new.”

-Aditha
[email protected]

Cleaner and greener tomorrow

Dear Children

World Environment Day 2013 will be celebrated on June 5 under the theme “Think.Eat.Save.” The event is held annually since 1973 to create global awareness of the need to take healthy and sustainable steps to protect the environment. As is the case with many International Days, World Environment day too was declared by the United Nations and is run by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

According to the UNEP, this year’s theme “Think.Eat.Save” encourages people to become more aware of the environmental impact of the food choices they make and empowers them to make informed decisions.

Due to various human activities a great deal of environmental degradation is taking place all over the world. Natural habitats of animals are destroyed. Trees are being cut down in order to construct buildings. Annually, acres of dense forest areas are cleared in the name of development. As a result biodiversity of these forests is badly affected. Global warming and climate change are direct adverse consequences of environmental degradation.

As already mentioned the intention of celebrating World Environment Day is to make individuals at every level understand the value of preserving the environment. Development practices have to be done with minimal environmental harm.

On June 5 there will be awareness programmes in our country too. You might have already been informed by your school about essay and drawing competitions which will be held to mark the Environment Day. Hope all of you will participate in these competitions.

In order to have a cleaner and greener tomorrow all of us have to be more environmental friendly.

Bye for now,

Sanju
[email protected]

Butterfly

It flew across the lovely sky
What a beauty my,oh,my!
Its massive wings touched my face
But now it’s gone without a trace
It flew so fast,so wondrously,
It was such a sight to see
It was like an art and captured my heart
It might come to your house,
So watch it close as it flies by
I’m talking of the lovely butterfly!

Ama Saumyadeepa Dias
Grade-10
Gateway College
Kandy