Capturing rural life: Kuruwita’s art at 90
From truant to teacher, from educationist to artist, Kuruwita Abayawardana has managed to bring to life the most mundane scenes of village life through skilled, child-like brush strokes.
Born in 1935, Abayawardana was just ten years old when the Japanese launched an aerial attack over the British-occupied Sri Lanka, but he recalls it perfectly. In his drawing ‘Kuruwita Town During WW11’ the artist carefully recreates the small railway town – building by building – in the shadow of the towering Adam’s Peak, with Japanese fighter planes overhead. He recalls seeing the aircraft flying low overhead, how the schoolchildren were instructed to put cotton wool in their ears and a piece of wood between their teeth.
Orphaned at a young age, he was brought up by a kindly aunt and uncle. School did not interest the young boy and he was often found playing truant outside the confines of the classroom. “School was a struggle. I came late, skipped classes and napped in reed beds.” This cost his aunt a fine of Rs. 5, which he deeply regretted. From thereon, he had reformed his ways and paid more attention to academics.
However, it was his creative side that won the day. By the time he was in the seventh grade he was illustrating death notices and drawing portraits of loved ones for villagers in exchange for cloth or coloured pencils. His teachers recognised and encouraged his talent, including using his sketchbook as a teaching aide for other students. In 1957 with financial support from his brother, Kuruwita Abayawardana attended the prestigious Heywood Art Institute when the renowned David Paynter was Principal.
Kuruwita Abayawardana
Abayawardana worked as a textile designer at the Wellawatte Mills and later became a government art teacher. During his time as a textile designer, he freelanced as an art instructor, and here while teaching art to aspiring artists, he met and married his future wife.
Today, at 90, Kuruwita Abayawardana is exhibiting some of his more recent work brining to life rural scenes and familiar places. Artistic renditions of everyday village life in Kuruwita – artisanal gem mining, women pounding rice, buffaloes working in paddy fields, the village New Year festival, birds, flowers, temple festivals and even simple acts like a man with a wheel barrow or women bathing in the river…are both refreshing and nostalgic for a way of life that is fast dying and may not survive the onslaught of technology. Colourful and vibrant these works of art grab your attention with their use of form, colour, free flowing style and quaintness of subject.
Kuruwita Abayawardana’s paintings are on exhibition until March 31 at the Siyam Niwasa, opposite the Town Hall Colombo from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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