Semage wins another laurel

by R. S. Karunaratne

The Solius Mendis Foundation has decided to honour the internationally known Kalasuri Jayasiri Semage with the National Award for 2009. The award ceremony is jointly organized by the Solius Mendis Foundation, the Cultural Department and the Samastha Lanka Vruththeeyange Sangamaya. The award ceremony will be held at the John de Silva Memorial Theatre, Colombo on September 20. Cultural Minister Piyasiri Wijenayake will be chief guest.

Kalasuri Jayasiri Semage has carved out a niche for himself in the world of art. He has combined the salient features of Sigiri and Ajantha art traditions and has evolved his own style.

He has held numerous solo art exhibitions both in Sri Lanka and foreign countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, and Nepal. His paintings have appealed to a wide cross section of art lovers around the world.

Semage decorated the Sri Lankan stalls at the Expo exhibitions with beautiful art works done in the traditional way.

After he held his first exhibition in Geneva, one of his paintings was selected for permanent display at the United Nation's office. This was a singular honour bestowed on a Sri Lankan artist for the first time.

All the Presidents of Sri Lanka have utilized his services on many occasions. He designed a colourful pandal for the opening ceremony of the Mahaweli Project during President J. R. Jayewardene's rule. When R.

Premadasa was the President he put up many pandals for Gam Udava functions.

During the same period his services were sought to put up pandals for Mahapola anniversaries.

During President Chandrika Kumaratunga's rule he put up a giant pandal in front of the BMICH for its jubilee ceremony. He put up another pandal depicting Dasaraja Dharma for Vesak in front of the Parliamentary complex in 2006 on the initiative of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. His latest assignment was to do the murals at the Buddhist temple in Lumbini, Nepal on a concept of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. After working on the project, Kalasuri Jayasiri Semage and his team of artists returned to the island recently.

Jayasiri Semage has many awards such as Kalasuri, Kalabhushana, Kalakeerthi, Kalapathi, International Media Award, and the Sarvodaya National Award to his credit. He remains a unique artist who has done Sri Lanka proud.