Creative harmony

The International Artist Camp 2000 which was organised by the George Keyt Foundation at 'Habarana Village' in the first week of October to ensure that "art has no boundaries" was a unique opportunity for young local artist, to work together with artists from other countries, to share information, methods for artistic creations, and social changes taking place around the world.

Young artists from Norway, Bangladesh, Netherlands, USA, Germany, Pakistan and Sri Lanka worked in close harmony at 'The Village Habarana' for about 10 days using all kinds of materials to crystalize their vision. Different forms of art from realism to conceptuals to installations were seen in the expressions of the young artists.

Visual arts has always been regarded as a universal language which needs no interpretation.

Participating artists in the camp were involved in developing a dialogue between the Asians and the Europeans. Visits to historical sites Sigiriya, Polonnaruwa and Dambulla added much to their knowledge and gave an in-depth knowledge of the history of Sri Lanka and its early art in stone, murals in caves and temples.

The Asian artist has many responsibilities. He has to earn a living for his family, he has to be committed to his art and to the society in which he has been brought up, which subsequently shapes his ideas, clolours vocabulary and vision.

In Europe the situation of artists is different. Artists have materials, resources and can afford to create whatever they wish.

The Camp was a success and its objectives were achieved to a great extent but more could be explored. The participation of artists from Middle Eastern, and Central Asian republics would be beneficial.

Strokes of spiritual inspiration

By Alfreda de Silva

A landscape painter and environmentalist, Breese is a theologian who majored in the philosophy of religion as an undergraduate. His Master's degree focused on world religions.

His chequered career includes five years service as an officer of the U.S. Air Force and the position of pastor of an ecumenical Christian church in New York in the mid nineteen nineties. 

He was a self-taught artist beginning to paint in childhood. In the late nineteen seventies he began his first instruction in water colour painting with his uncle the artist Joseph Castari.

It was easy to relate to the fact that his childhood inspiration came from the idyllic, wooded semi-rural countryside in which he lived and where his father had been raised. It was located midway between the urban centres of New York city and Philadelphia.

Its family history and natural beauty gave him a spirituality and aesthetic philosophy similar to that of the Transcendentalist of his country.

American transcendentalism was an important movement in philosophy and literature in the middle years of the nineteenth century. Among its best known pioneers were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman and Thoreau. Their theory centred on 'the divinity of each individual which can be self-discovered, but only if one has the independence of mind, the inward freedom, to do so'.

Great importance was placed on 'the inner spark' that is contained in all of nature, including humans, that can only be discovered by intuition and creative insight....". 

After completing a Master of Divinity degree in 1991, Breese explored ways of integrating his interests in what human creativity, religious experience and non-human environment mean.

In his work as a pastor in the mid nineteen nineties in New Jersey, his innovations included blending the life of the arts with that of the community. He used history and painting as focal points for preaching and teaching.

His dynamism extended to the creations of an inter-faith centre. Through this he motivated a group exhibition of professional, non-professional and student artists to explore the relationship between the sacred scriptures and man's creative insight. In 1996 he held his first one-man exhibition at the Rectory of All Saints Church, Navesink, New Jersey.

At the Habarana Village Artists Camp, with the beauty of the wooded landscape closing in around the painters, Breese had felt a sense of place, of identity, a visionary and spiritual perspective, and the lakes gorges, streams and bird life of his childhood returned to him in memory.

Breese talked about American art and regionalised American artists of the nineteen twenties people like Grantwood and Thomas Hart. They painted the Mid-west of America, and their art dominated the fifties.

They concentrated on people, folksy occupations and home-spun settings, history and religion. 

In John Stuart Curry's painting Kansas Baptism the preacher, who is using a truck for the purpose, looks like John Brown who dedicated his life working for the abolition of slavery in America.

Two of Breese's favourite twentieth century artists are Arthur Dove (1880-1946) and Charles Burchfield (1893-1967).

Dove took his inspiration from the land. One of his most striking paintings Interior Scene of the Forest has the sun abstracted in long ribbons of light on a lake. It breathes an air of spirituality.

Burchfield was a water colour painter who was a keen and intense observer of the world around him. His Spirit of the Woods at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, glows with energy. Chestnuts burst open in four-pointed star shapes.

In all the courses that Breese teaches on Buddhism, Hinduism, Primal religions and the philosophy of religions, art plays a central role. It is both a religious expression and a philosophical illustration.

In August 2001 he will commence his PH.D programme at the Department of Religion and the Visual Arts at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California.

Breese gave two talks at the American Centre in Colombo: The role of religion in shaping the American character and the Spirit of Home: American Landscape Painting.

Currently he is researching the work of George Keyt at the Gotami Vihare.

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