Paintings with toothbrush

George Beven

Once George Beven wanted to have an exhibition in London with Princess Margaret as the central figure, knowing her very well after he painted a monotone portrait of her, he asked her to lend the picture which hung at Kensington Palace.

"When I asked the taxi driver to take me there, he was pleasantly surprised and said that he was waiting a long time until someone asked him to take them to Kensington Palace," said George. George was taken to the gates of Kensington Palace and breezed through security without any hindrance. Going up to the Princess' apartments where she gave him the painting, the driver was so thrilled with the painting and the trip that he graciously carried the painting to and from Kensington Palace and into George's residence.

Negombo-born George Beven is of British and German descent and professed to an interest in art ever since he won several international competitions in his former schools Methodist College, Newstead and later Maris Stella College. "I remember my first art teacher Miss Jayawardena who encouraged me to pursue my talent" he said. Later, on advice of a friend, he published some of his black and white paintings for the newspaper.

Mesmerised by his work, Anne Abayasekera, the then women's page editor of the Ceylon (Sunday) Observer asked him to join the newspaper seeing his magnificent paintings. "I told her I'll finish studying for my SSC (Senior School Certificate) and join Lake House" said George. Subsequently, he undertook the task of livening stories with brilliant illustrations for the women's pages and feature articles.

Reminiscing about his Lake House days, George said, "I'd never done any special art classes except during school but I got the opportunity to develop my skills when Lake House agreed to sponsor me to study at 'Heywood', the Government College of Fine Arts and then later to go to the St. Martin School of Art, London to study even further in this stream." George Beven uses 'Gouache' paints (paint consisting of pigment suspended in water) to create his masterpieces.

"I like to use a water-based technique to achieve the desired effect and I love painting human figures", said George who has created astounding portraits of Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Liza Minelli and also Rudolf Nureyev and Michael Baryshnikov.About using toothbrushes, George said, "I spray paint by using toothbrushes and prefer to paint portraits from photographs because it'll take too much time if I ask someone to pose". Further he said, "I tend to paint more in the UK because I have more time for myself and the surroundings are duller there than in Sri Lanka".

However, George said that many in the UK didn't really like his paintings because they were too bright but he said he can't help it. "I'm inspired by bright colours because of my Sri Lankan upbringing which is vibrant and picturesque", he said. George enhanced his art skills in the area of colour combinations by enroling back at art school at the age of 55 years.

"I'm happy to say that I've exhibited my paintings in many countries like Spain, Japan, India, Australia, USA and even Sri Lanka", he said.

Even though George is a pensioner living in the UK, he has come to Sri Lanka to display some of his bright works of dazzling art at the Barefoot from the 1st till the 20th of September and is definitely cheerful about it. "I hope to display some of my best creations at the Barefoot and reveal my true colours", concluded George who will celebrate his 80th birthday with this exhibition.