Nirmala de Alwis:

The elephant’s majesty impacts her art

The road leads to a compound of scenic beauty of tropical splendour with tall shady trees spread like an umbrella. Entering the huge mansion, I observed that it was fine in spaciousness, with a big wall-hanging of an elephant done in papier mache (made up of paper pulp).

It reminded me of the great days when hospitality was offered to high rankers of the administration and the affluent rich, who dined and wined with their spouses till the wee hours. After some time a tall figure approached and greeted me. She was none other than Nirmala de Alwis, a wildlife artist, and the daughter of the late Lyn de Alwis, Director of the Zoological Gardens and Wildlife. The De Alwis’ have left a colourful history in Sri Lanka, Lyn de Alwis (a distinguished Thomian) and internationally well-known wildlife and nature conservationist and his younger brother Neville de Alwis warden of S. Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia.

Nirmala de Alwis born in Colombo, grew up in an environment of animals and plants in her home near the National Zoological Gardens.

From early childhood at Ladies’ College, Colombo, Nirmala developed a passion to draw animals such as tigers, lions, leopard cubs, and monkeys. As she reached maturity she turned out to be one of the best wildlife artists in her generation.

She was fortunate to come under the tutelage of gate-Mudaliyar, A.C.G.S. Amarasekera who taught the elements of art. Later, she studied under S. Mittapala who taught her to paint animals and learn the art of using colours to portray animals in their natural habitat. She completed her A/Ls at Ladies’ College, Colombo.

Her striking beauty and slim figure however would have led to a successful dancing career.

Nirmala had only to take a few steps moving to rhythm when the drums begin to throb. But God had much more in store for her.

She proceeded to Singapore with her parents and entered the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts where she completed a course in art.

As an art student, she took part in the Singapore Festival of Arts in 1992 and the Asia Pacific Art Exhibition in the same year.

Returning to Sri Lanka with much experience in art, she worked in a leading advertising agency in Colombo where she gathered experience in production, radio commercials and handling various advertising campaigns with reputed firms.

But her forte was elephants and a passion to depict nature in every medium, oil, pastel, charcoal, watercolour, acrylic and pen and ink drawings. Her frequent visits to the National Parks and sanctuary sharpened her skills in drawing and painting every animal, especially, the magnificent elephant and give her appreciation and respect for animals. Nirmala always experiments with colour effects at the expense of her favourite pets, the leopard, deer and elephant. In many instances her experiments were successful, and the pigments have retained their life-like freshness to the present day.

Interestingly, the older she grew the more skilful she became not only in the mixture of colours, but also in the texture of the design.

Her art never suffered from the sunset of an outlived inspiration. On the contrary, like good wine it improved with age.

Nirmala held her first solo exhibition in 1998 at the National Art Gallery, the second at the Lionel Wendt, the third on an invitation by Alliance Francaise, Colombo and the fourth solo exhibition ‘Hasthi’ at Havelock Place Bungalow which was most successful.

Nirmala said, “Having grown up in a unique setting near the premises of the zoo, and being foster mother to a menagerie of wild animals, I had the impact to do animal portraits of most of the creatures I love! At best I call myself a wildlife painter, elephants being my main subject”.

“What I love most about them is that they invoke strong sentiments in the viewer possibly because they are the largest land mammals and of course their beauty and strength and imposing majesty.

“They have been the mainstay in Sri Lankan art impressions and they still stay culturally entwined to everyday life”.