Sunday Times 2
Discovering his celtic roots through Hindu drawings
View(s):By Joshua Surendraraj
Knowing your heritage and where you come from is an essential part of being a human being. If you know where you belong, it allows you to open to other people and take an interest in their roots, a form of reopening to the world. This is what artist Padrig Morin believes and hopes to showcase at ‘Ene Kelt- Celtic Soul,’ his exhibition now on at the Barefoot Gallery in Colombo 3 until July 30.
Padrig Morin's exhibition on at the Barefoot Gallery until July 30
Born in Brittany (North-West France) in 1962, Padrig’s Celtic roots have also drawn him to further exploration of his culture. Interestingly he first came to Sri Lanka nearly 30 years ago with the intention of becoming a Buddhist monk but felt that he wasn’t ready for it.
At the time he was studying Buddhism and the study of pre- Buddhist India. “On the first day I was ok with the studies. But the second day I was forgetting everything,” he recalls. In order to fix his memory, he began to draw the Hindu Gods. That’s where it all began, he says.
He drew for a few years until one of his friends saw his work and asked him to exhibit them. “I said you have to be joking. I said I barely know how to draw, let alone combine colours,” he recalls. But his friend directed him to Alliance Française in Colombo.
“So I gathered a bit of courage and went. I thought they would think I’m stupid. But once they saw my work, they said yes you can exhibit them any time you want. So that was my first exhibition in 1993,” he explains.
Completely self taught Padrig says he doesn’t know many techniques. “My dilemma was, do I learn technique and lose part of the spontaneity in the work that I do? Finally I decided I won’t learn technique, that I’ll just carry on and evolve on my own,” he says adding that he feels that’s better because it gave a kind of soul to the paintings.
Padrig has held four solo exhibitions and four group exhibitions here since 1993. These have all been centred mainly on Hinduism and Buddhism. In his last exhibition, in 2010 Padrig explored more Hebrew, Kaballah and Arabic calligraphy, but still mixed them with Hinduism and Buddhism as he feels they are all linked.
“I didn’t paint for three years after that, because I had to travel a lot. At this point I started getting a little more into my culture, trying to catch up with my roots. Maybe because I’m getting old,” he chuckles. During this time, he found there were many common elements with the old Celtic religion and the Hindu religion. “The old Celtic religion is a holistic religion and you find many similarities between the God and the symbols. And you can really make the parallel between some Celtic Gods and some Hindu Gods. “
“To me very importantly this helped me go to my own culture somehow. It’s been a whole re-education of my roots and I think it shows well in my painting. I’m quite happy and proud to share this part of myself with the Sri Lankan people,” he says.
Celtic patterns and designs are numerous. Padrig recalls the ‘Triquetra’ and the ‘Triskele’, which are Celtic symbols are linked to eternity. He explains that the elements to which these symbols have been incorporated into Christianity, also translate into the same wish for eternity.
“I think it’s profound to any of us. Somehow in the back of our deep memory, those symbols speak to us even if we don’t know them, because something has been transmitted to our memory through the ages and that doesn’t disappear,” Padrig reflects. “I know they belong to me somehow and I think as a man of the 21st century I can still make them come alive.” He believes he can still share them with people and maybe find the original sense in them which is what he is trying to do with his paintings.