Vintage Cader
Ifthikar Cader
Exquisite Sri Lanka’ is Ifthikar Cader’s ode to the country that has given him unending inspiration and joy in capturing on canvas scenes that his artist’s eye finds spellbinding. Even for the casual onlooker, there is an unmistakable depth of feeling behind every painting and his love for the land shines through the shades of light in every brush stroke. “I take my inspiration from the landscapes. Sri Lanka I think is unrivalled, so much to paint and choose from- whether you go to Jaffna, Batticaloa or Kalpitiya,” he says talking with great passion of the sublime sunsets of the East coast, the magical light in Weligama down south, that seems to him almost Mediterranean.
Exhibitions by Ifthikar Cader are not frequent – this after a lapse of four years – next weekend – March 18 and 19 at the Lionel Wendt Gallery is vintage Cader- some 55 paintings all in his signature ‘Plein-air’ style.
Though now in his late 70s with age and a few health issues creeping up, Ifthikar Cader is still prolific and for one who took to painting seriously only after retirement at the age of 57, his has been an extraordinary saga – an inspiration if you will to anyone who nursed a passion but had virtually given up on it as the demands of career and family life took precedence.
Growing up he loved to paint, then with watercolours but there were always other pursuits, rugby at school and later after his studies at the London School of Economics, a career in his family’s gem exporting business which he found absorbing. It took him travelling and he would always make the time to visit the museums and galleries in Paris, London and the other European capitals he found himself in.
Yet it was only after retirement and literally moping around the house ‘despondent’ that his daughter Shahnaz suggested he take up painting again. Suddenly inspired, he went off to New Coop’s, the little shop at the corner of Kollupitiya junction and invested in paints and brushes and all the artists’ paraphernalia, he recalls.
There was no looking back and the response to his first exhibition in 1996 was encouragement enough that he had found a new lease of life. He sold some ten paintings not only to family and friends and felt confident that his work was worthwhile.
Never having been to art classes, painting when he took to it seriously was something he had to learn, the techniques and methodologies. He confesses freely that he is totally grateful to the internet for he studied and researched and learnt from the resources he found online and through books, magazines and DVDs by world renowned artists. Sri Lanka’s lack of a proper national gallery where artists can go and see the works of the great artists past and contemporary is a major drawback, he believes – “Our young artists are handicapped by the lack of a proper gallery.”
He works in the Plein-air tradition (open air in French), where the artist seeks to capture the landscape before him. This requires him setting up camp in the location and working till he has filled in the basics. If time does not permit, he is now sometimes compelled to photograph the scene and try to recapture it later but there is nothing quite like the magic of working on the spot, he says.
“Not only do you get the light correctly, the colours correctly, you also have the luxury of being out in the countryside -that in itself is like an intoxicant.” The light in this country, can be a challenge, he says, because daybreak is around six and sunsets can come as early as 5.30 unlike the long summer days in Europe.
Waterlilies at Bolgoda
Plein-air work is on small canvases so you can get it finished, the canvases usually not more than 12’’ x 16’’, he explains. “You could take it back and finish it later if it’s a bigger canvas but it’s never as clear and good as watching it from nature.” He now photographs for clarity’s sake and then concentrates on seeing what attracted him to the scene and focuses on bringing that out – what impresses each person will be different, after all, he is quick to add.
His attraction to the Plein-air tradition naturally follows his abiding love for travel and wildlife, one shared by his family, who are quite accustomed to being bundled into the car, setting off even at ten in the night. Hambantota, Elahara, where the gem business often took him were frequent destinations as were the wildlife parks like Yala, Wilpattu and Uda Walawe. In recent times, the trips have been to Jaffna, the East, Mannar and other parts of the country. Scenes where he could bring in wildlife are what he prefers and they were often not even far away -on the outskirts of town, Muthurajawela, was a place he loved seeing the wild ducks, that used to fly over from the Negombo lagoon.
While the landscapes of Sri Lanka dominate the walls of his home, they are interspersed with scenes from his travels, from his wife’s home country Pakistan, the sunlit bays of Trinidad and Tobago and even pastoral scenes from France, a country for which the Caders have a special affection. They honeymooned there as young students on the invitation of his uncle, the charge d’ affaires of the Sri Lankan embassy at the time and the Eiffel Tower was just a stone’s throw away from his flat. Ifthikar was so inspired by the view he painted it but regretfully no longer has that painting with him.
A stunning sunset
While he has tried his hand at abstract works, with quite surprising success, he smiles, his greatest love is the Impressionists. He adopts a looser style now, he says and keen followers of his work will see some examples in the paintings on display at this exhibition.
We take our leave on the verandah of his Kohuwala home, which doubles up as his studio “the light is best here” he points out, though distractions like the ringing of the doorbell often disturb his train of thought. Amidst the many canvases, our last look is at a large painting, inspired by Monet –water lilies on a lake of mangroves, a darkly brooding Bolgoda landscape with the thought that these works do belong in that national gallery he spoke of.
Ifthikar Cader’s exhibition will be on at the Lionel Wendt Gallery on March 18 and 19 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.