Creating for himself

By Kumudini Hettiarachchi

We are in the childhood home of George Beven, the artist, actually the modern upstair pad he has built adjacent to his home. It's a large room, full of light, which serves as his studio cum bedroom. One corner is taken up by all the arty stuff, the easel, the paint, the brushes, and the container with startling orange paint. On the wall hangs a clock with the numbers the wrong way round, for someone had told Beven that time goes more slowly when you pass 50.

But for Beven, now 72, life took on a new meaning in his fifties. For then did he start to paint seriously. "The real painting started 20 years ago, when the travel company I worked for in England went bankrupt. I couldn't find a job. When you are past 50, they believe you are good only for the rubbish heap. I thought somebody up there was telling me something," he says looking upward.

That was just the beginning of serious painting. He recalls with nostalgia and a trace of gratitude Miss Jayawardena, who first encouraged him to wield the brush and as a mark of confidence sent his entries to art competitions in England. Miss Jayawardena was the art teacher at the first school he attended along with his sister-Newstead College in Negombo,- where his mother taught music.

Beven was born in Negombo, which was considered a Burgher town. His father's ancestors, originally from Gloucester in England, came as soldiers with the British, to Ceylon in the 18th century. One of them married a German and settled down here. His mother was a Miss Wright whose people also came from England.

Beven was at Newstead till he was 12 and then moved over to Maris Stella College. During his years at Newstead, he also became a child dancer. Drawing from a canvas full of memories, he brings out a picture of what life was like in Sri Lanka then. "At that time certain places like the Colombo Swimming Club were taboo for the Ceylonese. There were also no local dancers in the Ceylon Amateur Dramatic Company (CADC). But they took young Ceylonese who could dance for interludes between skits. This group consisted of myself, Romayne Dias, Oosha de Livera and a few others. Rehearsals were at the Swimming Club. We kallas were only allowed in for the rehearsals. We couldn't even have a drink there or a shower. Once the rehearsals were over we just had to leave and take the bus home."

When he was at Maris Stella there was no painting at school. "I just did it as a hobby." 

While at Maris Stella, he sent a couple of line drawings to the Ceylon Observer. This was in the late 1940s. The Editor of the Women's Pages wanted him to start work the following Monday. He told them he would join up after finishing school, which meant the SSC. They kept the offer open and he went to Lake House as illustrator and fashion designer. He didn't have a place to sit for a while and was sent to the library, where he even found clippings whenever the Editor wanted them.

"I believe I was the first artist any Sri Lankan newspaper employed. The only thing I didn't do was draw cartoons, for at that time Lake House had Collette," he says.

He had no formal training in art and Lake House sent him for evening classes at Heywood Art College down Green Path. There his path crossed those of Principal J.D.A. Perera and his own tutor David Paynter. It was from Paynter that he learnt to draw the human figure. Then in 1955 Lake House decided to send him to England, to St. Martin's School of Art to learn fashion drawing and illustration. 

Afterwards he came back to Sri Lanka and worked for a while. Then came Sinhala Only in 1958 and he decided to emigrate to England where his sister and mother were already living. In England he couldn't get a job on a newspaper, though he had the experience, because "coloureds couldn't be sent to interview whites." That has changed now. 

He was doing 'temp work' because he knew shorthand and typing. He went from one office to another to fill in for permanent employees who were on leave. Later he joined the travel company. 

A friend hung his paintings in a London restaurant and people bought them off the walls. One day a woman who was a friend of Princess Margaret requested him to paint a portrait of the Princess and presented it to her. When he was holding an exhibition in London he used the Princess's portrait as the main focus. 

To bring out the power and expressions of the human figure and face, Beven has developed his own 'toothbrush technique' called 'monotones'. "It's very messy and tedious. I end up with both hands covered in paint," he smiles, adding in Sinhala which he slips into quite often, that people are not 'pissu' to follow this method. To us who see the end product, only one word comes to mind, stunning. 

Though he accepts such accolades with humility, for Beven his 'biggest thrill' comes from being an 'art teacher' to disadvantaged and special children. Conceding that he was 'bludgeoned' into helping with the disabled and disadvantaged in Vavuniya first by Ms. Sunethra Bandaranaike for Sunera Foundation, he recalls how he met a 10-year-old dumb boy in December 2000. "The boy was not dumb from birth, but had stopped speaking when a mortar exploded near him. On the first day of the workshop I gave my class huge sheets of paper and chalk. No reaction. Then I held this child's hand and drew colourful lines across the paper and his face lit up with this smile, I will never forget. It didn't matter what they did, it was great to see the satisfaction."

"The best paintings are those that when you look at them, they dazzle your eyes. Purple and green create a vibration. Anybody can paint, but to create a painting you need that extra bit. Painting is not just copying nature. I copy nature in my own style. Lots of students ask me why the water in my paintings is not blue, but yellow. I create. I just don't copy nature. It is that much nicer and more attractive. I also paint for myself."

"Colours", an exhibition of 34 paintings in gouache and acrylic gouche, of Sri Lankan life in its varied forms by George Beven will be opened by Sunethra Bandaranaike at the Lionel Wendt Gallery on Tuesday at 5.30 p.m. 

The exhibition will be open to the public from September 5 to 8 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

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