First ever exhibition of botanical illustrations

Ruwani Perera will present her latest exhibition of botanical illustrations in watercolour at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery, Colombo on December 17, 18 and 19 from 10 am to 6.30 pm.

Ruwani is an artist who paints any subject with equal skill. While working in a realistic style in oils, she recently started branching out into watercolours. Ruwani's passion for nature and art led her into the botanical illustrations field where she could pursue both interests as well as exercise her talents for drawing and painting.

Her preferred botanical subject is the plants with the medicinal usage. Ruwani says, "my botanical illustrations concentrate on depicting the character, detail, colour, texture and form of a plant". She finds it important to conform to the fundamentals of the genre in order to provide the viewer with sufficient information to clearly identify the plant.

In the 19th century Harmanis de Alwis Senevirathne who was arguably the foremost Asian botanical illustrator and his descendants of Royal Botanical Gardens of Peradeniya have delineated more than 2,000 plants and flowers of Sri Lanka.

To fill the gap and shortcoming came Ruwani Perera. Her outstanding talent as an artist helped her to delineate the illustrations of the medicinal plants of Sri Lanka.

This will be the first ever exhibition of botanical illustrations in Sri Lanka. Fifty illustrations will be displayed at the exhibition. The illustrations are a reflection of her love for the subject and her desire to create something lasting and beautiful.