Bringing to life our history
Presentation of the completed Pattirippuwa: The architect of the Kandyan Kingdom Devendra Mulachari and Sri Wickrema Rajasinha are seen at right
She has a long name and a long and successful career dealing in many areas of human interest. A master gemmologist, geologist, jewellery designer, scientist, and publisher Avanti Jasmine Germani Sri Nissanka Karunaratna put all that aside to pursue a career in art.
Having lived and worked in Australia, the USA, France, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, Italy, South America, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Malaysia, she had her own successful business for over 35 years with an extensive network in gems and jewellery design, art, fashion, media and marketing. Her core interest was to promote and be a brand ambassador for gem stones, fine jewellery and fine art.
The book titled Real Women’s Stories 2018 published in November 2017 by Beth Kallman Werner (NY) has a spread on Avanti – ‘The Historical Artist Goes Home’.
Avanti at home: Drawing on history more and more
Her interest in art led her to enrol at the Michelangelo Fine Art Academy, Florence, Italy, despite her busy schedule as wife, mother and business woman. Long before that she remembers her art class in Mahamaya Girls’ College Kandy. “Our art teacher asked us to draw a coconut tree. I did – in blue! The teacher was horrified and asked me whether I cannot see that it was green. No! it is blue, I insisted.She gave up on me and my ability to paint. I got only two marks out of ten.”
Another teacher Ms. Niyangoda taught her to draw faces. Portrait painting has now become her forte but she is also adept at painting wildlife and scenery.
When a friend commissioned her to paint Sri Wickrema Rajasinha, the last king of Kandy to be placed in his Hotel Sandriana in Kandy, she painted the king with Udawattakele in the background, imagining the thick forest cover just above the King’s Palace with leopards roaming about. She has also painted a huge canvas depicting Kandyan dancers and drummers, for the same hotel.
“My passion is painting and I want to bring out the history of our country through the medium of art,” she says.
A few months ago, she joined her brother Professor Randhir Karunaratna at a meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society in Colombo where a member Senaka Weeraratne introduced her to D.D.M. Waidyasekera, author of the book ‘Great Royal Artificer of the Kandyan Kingdom Devendra Mulachari.’ Mulachari designed the iconic Octagon, the Pattirippuwa of the Sri Dalada Maligawa. Mr. Waidayasekera said that he would be presenting the book to the Most Ven. Mahanayaka Thera of the Malwatte Viharaya and requested her to paint the story of the Pattiruppuwa.
Portrait of a Kandyan King: Sri Wickrema Rajasinha
After reading the book, Avanti said she created the painting the way Devendra Mulachari had described a Palace of Kuvera in the clouds, to the King. The Great Artificer had observed the clouds floating in the sky when he went to inspect the area where the king wanted the Pattirippuwa built.This inspired him to create the Walakulu Bemma around the moat and the lake. The Magul-maduwa,Ulpange, the Kirimuhuda, the island in the centre of the lake and the draw bridge are all creations of Devendra Mulachari.
Avanti lives in a house just overlooking the Kandy lake and across the Sri Dalada Maligawa and wakes up daily to the sound of the Hewisi (drumming).This is the signal for the performance of the Sri Dalala Maligawa Thevava,the first ritual for the day. “Seeing the Dalada Maligawa daily and hearing the echo of the drumming it is all etched in my heart. I was elated and happy to paint the Pattiruppuwa, which I felt, was the most natural thing for me to do.” This assignment has inspired her to study the connection between Buddhism and the Sinhala and Nayakkar kings of Kandy.
Currently she is painting Monarawila Keppetipola Disave. “We should remember the great warriors who fought and sacrificed their lives in the first battle for freedom, for an independent Sri Lanka,” says Avanti adding that she was interested in history from her schooldays. She is thankful to her teacher Sumana Wanasekara who inspired her. “She taught us so well and it was an absorbing subject for me.” Avanti’s father Dr. Gemunu Karunaratna was a wonderful historian from whom she also learnt a lot about the country’s history.”
Avanti’s next project is to paint Sri Wickrema Rajasinha’s Queen. She has already gathered information and is in the process of sketching her portrait.
| Making a glittering mark | |
| Known as Jasmine Germani or at times Yasmin by the international community, Avanti used this name for her overseas book publications and jewellery business.Among her many professional achievements, Avanti worked as a successful publisher with Amazon, Barnes, Ingram and Noble etc, managing book promotions, publicity and distribution, arranging US book tours for authors, seminars and exhibitions. She also worked with radio, TV channels in the USA and the BBC, Bloomburg(UK), CNN and Fox TV, newspapers, magazines, libraries and universities. A Fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain, she has a degree in Geology, G.G. and Jewellery Design (GIA) in the USA, a degree in Geology from Canterbury University, New Zealand, and a degree in Med Science from the University of Adelaide, S. Australia. These disciplines have helped her in her jewellery business as well as her book publications. Her Germani jewellery shops are headquartered in Sydney, Australia, the Middle East and Japan . Some of her pieces were created for the late Princess Diana, the Sultan of Brunei, the Duke and Duchess of Wellington, the Saudi Royal Family and for Hollywood legend, the late Elizabeth Taylor. Avanti proudly mentioned that a piece of Germani jewellery had received the prestigious DeBeers Diamond Award. |