Meanderings of her mind
View(s):Svayam is a Sanskrit word that, in essence, means ‘self’: its interpretation varies within each context. Charmaine Mendis’s paintings and drawings are in her own words, “an expression of myself, my feelings, my experiences, my escape; they are my meditations, my relaxation, and the meanderings of my mind, whilst my body is firmly rooted in the mundane present.”
Charmaine: A many-faceted woman
A many-faceted woman, Charmaine’s interests are as varied as spending time in the jungles, rifle shooting, flying, dancing, painting and reading. “The love of the jungles came from my father, and my interest, and later love of trees from my mother. My father was a hunter and went shooting very often. On our regular trips to the jungles, I became very handy with a gun and later on joined the Negombo Rifle Club to participate in competitive target shooting,” she recalls.
She went on to shoot at National level. Her mother meanwhile introduced her to dancing. “I absolutely loved dancing and was keen to learn any form of it. I truly believe that I was born to dance,” she says.
In 1954, Charmaine Vanderkoen Mendis was the first Sri Lankan to perform a Bharatha Natya Arangetram, or even a full length solo performance in that technique in Sri Lanka.
At the gala performance for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in 1954, she partnered Sesha Palihakkara, her guru in (Manipuri and Kathak) in the lead role of Damayanthi, in Nala Damayanthi. When she danced in London on stage and on BBC TV, dance critic Arnold Haskell and prima ballerina Margot Fonteyn were impressed.
After her marriage, she made a conscious choice to retire from dancing and devote her time to her family, as she could not conceive of accommodating a career as a dancer, and a family.
Her love of flying came about as a result of a chance flight on Air Ceylon to participate in a Navy Rifle Meet in Trincomalee. “An invitation to sit in the cockpit and I was hooked on learning to fly,” she remembers. By then Charmaine was the mother of three little sons, all under 10 but due to many fortuitous circumstances, and a lot of hard work, she succeeded in getting her Private Pilot’s Licence, and subsequently passed the British Board of Trade Exams for the Commercial Pilot’s Licence.
Charmaine recalls that those were the days of ‘flying by the seat of your pants’. “We had no radio contact with the ground, single seater WWII aircraft, no self starter, if the engine failed in mid -air you just had to put the nose down for the prop to gain momentum and start up (if possible).The propeller had to be manually swung by someone on the ground.
A qualifying requirement for the PPL was a solo cross country flight to Adam’s Peak and back. For all flights we had to file a Flight Plan with the Control Tower, using weather forecasts available at the Ratmalana Met Office, while computing on a mechanical slide rule type computer. The flight plan had to give as near accurate details of route, time of departure and expected time of arrival.
Black and white sketches inspired by trips to Yala
We had only basic navigation instruments, a Survey Department map of Sri Lanka and our eyes. We had to fly visual looking for landmarks that would tell us where we were. To say I took this all in my stride would be fiction. It was thrilling yes, but filled with some heart stopping moments, and many uncomfortable lumps in the throat!”
When it came to art, Charmaine was always keen on sketching and drawing, mostly landscapes which always had trees. “They were always leafless as I was unsure just how to draw leaves,” she says.
It was when she took her youngest son Sanjiv, who showed an early talent in drawing to Lathifa Ismail that Lathifa asked her why she didn’t start painting to occupy her time. “I ended up by being his guest artist when he gave his first solo exhibition aged five. After that, I continued classes with Lathifa and participated in quite a few Group Exhibitions with other adult students. I had my own first solo exhibition in 1983 called “Colours, Light and Shade” almost entirely in oils,” Charmaine recalls.
The turning point in Charmaine’s artistic life came in 2005 when she went to see an exhibition of black and white tree drawings by Karunasiri Wijesinghe. “I was absolutely enthralled, and it was then that I knew beyond a doubt that this was how I wanted to draw trees. I immediately enrolled at the Vibhavi Academy of Fine Arts, where he was teaching, and began really learning to draw, from the basic cube upwards. I soon moved on to real life trees, learning all the subtleties of light and shade, texture and grain and so much more.
Later Mr. Karunasiri agreed to start a class for Charmaine and a few friends. “We sketched always from life, going out of Colombo on sketching trips, even to Yala for a whole five days of serious work, not animal viewing. “The results of those trips and their weekly classes, was Vruksha, an exhibition of black and white drawings of the trees of Sri Lanka in 2011. This new exhibition which she has titled ‘Svayam’, is a Sanskrit word with many meanings. I have used it in the context of “self”, she says.
‘Svayam’, an exhibition by Charmaine Mendis will be on at the Lionel Wendt from December 1 to 3.
-Anusha David
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