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Uninhibited
expressions Writes Prof.
S. B. Dissanayake in the foreword to her catalogue: "What comes
to mind, if one is lucky enough to see Noella at work, is the total
involvement of all energies, of both mind and energy, in the making
of her pictures." "I draw
dancers," states Noella explaining her Siberian charcoal drawings.
"I get them to come to my studio and play some music and ask
them to dance... or move to the music. And whilst they are doing
this, I draw." "I do
about 50 drawings," she admits ruefully. "But most of
them are nothing but lines. I have to keep drawing, and finally
I pick one of the lot." Coming from
a family of artists, Noella has always had a passion for art. "I
grew up with art. It is in my blood and that's probably why I have
been drawing all my life." "Why is
her exhibition titled 'Nakedness'?" "It is naked, yes?
I don't get them to pose, I get them to dance. They have no idea
what I am doing. I just draw them when they are totally immersed
in their dancing and lost to the outside world," she explains.
"It is strange, and I feel as if I am looking at something
private. And the best way I could put it was by calling my exhibition
'Nakedness'." Noella's drawings have precision in them. At
close range, one can see a geometric precision in her figures. The
lines which she has based her drawing on, echo the style most Renaissance
artists endorsed. Some of them are built within triangles, and some
within squares. It proves that at the beginning, the drawing was
nothing but a geometric shape. "I believe
in strict lines," she says, explaining why she adheres to this
discipline of art. "Any painting done during the Renaissance
would have the same principle. This fascinates me... there is something
demanding in this style, and I like it." What makes
her drawings unique is the fact that she finds the lines and movements
of a person more interesting than his or her looks. "When I
do a portrait, I don't try to capture the eyes or the shape of the
nose. I would rather capture the way the person is seated and the
magic in their movements." "Then,
I would reveal something someone might not know about the person
and I definitely will not be able to do that if I draw her face
and figure. That is what I believe to be beautiful about a person." " Abstract art is definitely more accepted in Holland," says this Dutch artist. "The kind of drawing I do has lost its popularity. But for me it is more personal. The 'new forms' are not my style," she admits. "But yes, I might resort to them in time to come. Who knows?" Stanley
Kirinde felicitation publication Today he is
the nearest person we have to an official painter. His paintings,
murals and mosaics adorn the walls of President's House (Kandy and
Colombo), the Foreign Ministry, military academies, churches and
several government and private institutions including foreign museums
(the Fukuoka Art Museum, the Singapore Art Museum, and the Boston
Museum of Fine Arts), and the United Nations in Geneva. His work
has been exhibited in Bangladesh, Japan, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom
and the United States of America. His illustrations have appeared
in several books, most recently in a reprinting of Marie Musaeus-Higgins'
Stories from Ceylon History. Despite this
eminence, he is still not as widely known as he should be because
of his modest and retiring disposition, and to date there is only
one small cameo publication about him - A Classical Vision: The
Art and Landscape of Stanley Kirinde (Colombo 1998) by Dr. SinhaRaja
Tammita-Delgoda and Kapila Ariyananda. The selection of paintings
for that publication ended at 1980. The time has come for another
publication which would properly document a lifetime of painting
by a major Sri Lankan artist. The beauty
of Kirinde's art lies in the fact that it covers most of Sri Lanka's
cultural heritage and environment. It touches on all the manifold
aspects of the country's identity - its Buddhist inheritance, its
stunning landscapes, its fabled history and its vivid contemporary
life. The artist captures all these different facets, making him
an ideal brand label for Sri Lanka, an image which we can project
all over the world as the face of Sri Lanka in all its many forms.
Any further study of his works must aim to record all the different
periods and styles in Kirinde's paintings. It should have a schematic
structure which would feature the whole range of his work - miniature
paintings, history canvasses, Buddhist sutras and Jataka tales,
landscapes, portraits and contemporary scenes, oil paintings and
water colours. It should try to show as much as possible the full
range of Kirinde's talent in all kinds of media including his line
drawings, sketches, woodcarvings, book illustrations etc. The aim will
be to place this work alongside the comprehensive studies of George
Keyt and Ivan Peiris as a worthy tribute to another great Sri Lankan
artist. Unlike many of our other painters, Kirinde's work is accessible
and easy to understand. His paintings are more about how he sees
Sri Lanka and less about the way he sees himself. This is what makes
him so effective as a mirror of the country. To this purpose the book should also be about Sri Lanka as much as Kirinde. Given the scope of the project, photography will be a key element. A project is underway to publish a hard-bound book on quality art paper with at least 130 colour photographs. It will entail using the services of Sri Lanka's most eminent photographers. The writing of the text will be handled by a highly qualified scholar and writer, Dr. SinhaRaja Tammita-Delgoda, whose work is published and sold across three continents. You
too could contribute Any inquiries
regarding the project should please be addressed to Mr. Duminda
Hulangamuwa, Partner, Ernst & Young. Tel: 697363 - Ext. 102,
E mail - Tax@lk. eyi.com Fax - 074 710383. It is expected that the
publication will be ready by mid - 2003. Proceeds from sales of
the publication will go to the Stanley Kirinde Foundation for the
promotion of painting in Sri Lanka, especially by young artists. |
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