Primarily to the soul

He studied at the London School of Economics and played a vigorous game while at school-S. Thomas' Mt. Lavinia. Now it is a far cry from it all. Ifthikar Cader is an assertive and sensitive artist whose oils on canvas appeal primarily to the soul and to a deep aesthetic sense.

Being in the gem business after his return from London, Ifthikar there too just did not peddle precious stones but made with an astonishing facility jewellery for export to Paris, Switzerland and Japan.

He proudly showed his earliest paintings done at the age of sixteen. One is a painting of the Kandy Lake drawn from his uncle's bungalow.

"He was a magistrate, who really brought me up," he said. The sixteen year old's talent has captured the dignity, and serenity that makes the scene he has drawn memorable.

His brother Ashraff, the well-known rugger player, realized that Ifthikar had talent not only for figures but also for art and introduced him to water colours.

In London Ifthikar had scope to improve on his inborn talents visiting museums and art galleries.

"I was greatly influenced by Cezanne," he says.

For Sri Lanka's celebration of fifty years of Independence, the George Keyt Foundation held an exhibition and chose two of Ifthikar's canvases.

Ifthikar proudly pointed to a painting and said, "This rock pool on the road to Kandy was chosen by President Chandrika Kumaratunga as her favourite painting of those exhibited."

It is a rock pool in lonely splendour where water gushes out in hues of light purple, yellow green and brown giving the painting a sense of movement.

Take his portrait of his granddaughter Sehr (meaning Dawn), innocent, fresh and appealing. He has caught with skill the pursed lips of the child while she concentrates. Her red Alice-band is painted to bring out the yellow of her sleeveless frock.

"My daughter's favourite is this picture," said Ifthikar, of flowers drawn in stylised and abstract manner. "She won't let me sell it," he says.

"I am not much into abstract painting," confessed Ifthikar. "I feel that sometimes the artist does not know what is being painted. In my case I try to represent nature with my own emotions and not merely copy what I see. I try to give it my individual vision and my emotions naturally go with it."

Ifthikar Cader, today in retirement, is engrossed with oil paintings. With him it is so obvious that he does art for arts sake embellished no doubt with a technical mastery of the medium.

He is married to an attractive Pakistani lady Shanin and has a son and two daughters.

The exhibition is open to the public from October 27 to 29 from 10. a.m. to 7.30 p.m. at the Lionel Wendt.

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