Contemporary Painters

Amarasena Kodithuwakku:

An artist moved by emotions

Since the study of heredity is not an exact science, every man is biologically just what one would have expected or what one would never have expected or, most often, confused mixture of both. The subject of this biographical sketch is an unusually a pure specimen of the first of these classes. Almost everything he has done and the way in which he has then it have origins which are his own.

He stands on his own feet as a painter and artist. He is none other than Amarasena Kodithuwakku. He was born in Nawimana, a small village close to Matara, the natural splendour of the rural landscape with coconut trees heavy with greenish nuts, luxuriant green paddy fields, the wonderful panorama of mountains, with the river winding like a silver ribbon would have made him a nature lover.

Amarasena Kodithuwakku

One of his paintings

He had his early education at St. Thomas' College, Matara. In 1958 he entered the College of Fine Arts, where he was fortunate to study under distinguished senior art teachers such as David Paynter, Stanley Abeysinghe, S. P. Charles and W. A. Ariyasena.

During his long years in the Department of Education as an art instructor he taught at Medagama Maha Vidyalaya, Bibile where he won first place at the All Island Poster Competition in 1967.

Amarasena is one of the most versatile and original artists of his generation.

He trained as a decorative painter and also painted scenery and styles traditionally associated with it. He took a tremendous interest in contemporary art and reserved his strongest enthusiasm for past masters for their creativity.

A characteristic of his work is the great sensitivity to materials and a love of abstracts.

However, comparing his original work exhibited in his previous exhibitions it is clearly evident that he has turned towards new visual experiences, depicting his own style.

His colours are bright, simple and clear mostly based on human forms. It has high quality generating a true awakening. He regarded his subjects without illusions but with intimate knowledge.

Some of his paintings are abstract while a very modern trend too had found its way into them. 'Taking his bride home' (oil on canvas) depicts an exuberant village youth taking his bride home after the wedding and a cart drawn by a majestic looking bull decked in royal splendour. The focal-point of the painting was the animal. His love for animals was evident.

The oil on canvas had splashy greens and blues mixing into a haze of arabesque. His painting 'Mother and Child', implying that the mother's affection transforms her blood into breast milk. In several respects his methods are radically different and rare from those generally followed.

He paints on paper with a nonabsorbent surface. The successive washes enable him to obtain a richness of colour scarcely possible by traditional procedure.

The work of Amarasena is rare indeed of his generation, a unique variety which includes book covers, magazines and press designs, illustrations and advertisements. For a brief period he was working for a advertising agency in Colombo, where he worked as a creative director. He has held many art exhibitions at the Lionel Wendt, The National Art Gallery and Alliance Francaise. He hopes to have another exhibition in Colombo this year. Today in retirement, Amarasena is relaxed and ready to devote more time to his much loved subject.