Life And Smile Of Colour

An Exhibition of Paintings & Sculpture by Geetha Senewiratne will be declared open by  Bjorn Ketels, Director,  Goethe-Institut, Sri Lanka, on 18th August at 4.30 p.m. at the Art Gallery, Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha, Colombo 7. The exhibition will continue on the 19th and 20th August from 9a.m. to 7p.m.
Geetha Senewiratne’s creating works of art has been her childhood hobby which later turned out to be her profession. The current exhibition marks the reaching of forty years of her career as an artist.
A professional artist who has been a painter since her childhood hails from a family of artists. Her eldest brother who was in the field of marketing communications and now doing consultancy was a great inspiration to her during her childhood.
Her formative education was at Dharmapala   Vidyalaya,   Pannipitiya and subsequently formal training was under the guidance of MudliyarAmerasekera and subsequently ventured out to explore and give expression to.
Paintings,  line drawings, studio sculpture, studio pottery, garden sculpture, book illustrations, interior décor for public venues are evidence of  her versatility. Her medium in painting is oils, with a few acrylics thrown in. She is not only a gifted artist but also involved in sculpture.
As a young artist, she had her first solo exhibition of paintings in 1973, more as an attempt to find out people’s reactions to her expressions. Encouraged by this, she held solo exhibitions in 1976, 1977, 1981, 1985, 1986 and 1998 at the Samudra Gallery, Lionel Wendt and the National Art Gallery respectively. It should also be mentioned here that she has participated in exhibitions outside the country.
The crowning achievement for Geetha Senewiratne, was when she was honoured with the Presidential Award for the Best Sculpture at the 79th Annual Exhibition of the Ceylon Society of Arts in 1983. The Award was for her Sculpture of 1ft. 3inches in size titled  ‘Dushkarakriya’.
In the year 2003 she had another two well attended exhibitions of which one was sponsored by the Grand Oriental Hotel, Colombo where she has been involved in the Interior Décor of the Sri Lankan Restaurant as well as the Night Club and the hotel rooms.  The other was at the gallery of renowned artist S. H. Sarath.
She has also been involved in commissioned work in paintings for individuals and organizations including hotels, garden sculpture, interior designing, etc.
Conducting Workshops and Competitions and Consultancy work for various organisations such as Ceylinco Ran Daru, Voice of Women, World Vision, Singer Sri Lanka, Fonterra are a few of them. She is engaged in doing voluntary service for the Child Protection Society as well due to the love for children with no interest in monetary gains by training and helping them to do exhibitions on their own. She to this day is engaged in basic art at her home in Nugegoda for the young.
Blessed with neither wealth nor influence to boost her, Geetha has made an arduous attempt to gain recognition as a professional artist.