Rubert Soysa:

Local painter of int'l fame

A few kilometres from Colombo along the Kandy road, you come across Nittambuwa, a natural canvas of fertile valley surrounded by smiling hills with stretches of luscious green paddy fields.

It is the splendour of the village life and surroundings and its scenic aura that had made Rubert Soysa, a reputed painter. After his primary education at Roman Catholic Vidyalaya, Nittambuwa he took to painting and started working from home.

He worked his way to international fame. Visitors, especially tourists have seen some of his work on oil on canvas and had arranged for his works to be displayed in the capital of Oslo, Norway and in Brussels. (Rubert painted his cynical pictures of human character with their tragedy, cheerlessness, savagery, grief and occasional glimpses of nobility. (Rubert's output of paintings and drawings was considerably large. A number of them is clearly displayed abstract art related to modern art.

Women	Two figures

He held solo exhibitions in Spain in 2003, in Netherlands, in the Belgium capital of Brussels and Sweden. He held group exhibitions in Havana, Cuba and Bulgaria in 1988. He participated in the third Asian Biennial art show in Bangladesh (1986), contemporary Asian Art Show in Seoul South Korea, the sixth Triennial art show in New Delhi and the second Asian Art exhibition in Fukuoka, Japan.

In Colombo he has held solo exhibitions at Alliance Francaise at Colombo, Lionel Wendt and the Cinamon Grand, Colombo.

His ongoing solo exhibition at the Paradise Art Gallery, Colombo has 26 paintings on oil on canvas and in mixed media using cottonwool, scraps of newspaper and cloth

For instance, two figures' depicts a sensuous glowing effects, 'Mother and Child' evokes a loving coolness, 'woman' is a more intricate type of paintings.

Rubert sees art much more than a mere message and as a language a mode of communication of the human emotions. He is a recipient of three awards. Prime Minister's prize for the painting at the annual art exhibition of the Ceylon Society of Arts.

President's Prize at the Annual Art Exhibition of the Ceylon Society of Arts and the first prize for the best painting at the State Award Ceremony. (Rubert Soysa was born on December 31, 1948. His father Sineris Soysa was a teacher.