Abstract Artistic Araceous

For those of you who don’t understand what the definition of araceous is, it quite simply put ‘of or relating to a family of plants’, hence Botany. I chose the word just for the aesthetic purpose of alliteration as I dwell into my newfound love for art, and especially the art of painting flora.

       

 

Despite being a theatre student, art and I host an almost clandestine dynamic, where I secret my love for it by my appalling skills and poor ability. However, my passion for creative expression through abstract and more importantly, tangible means, overshadows my weak painting skills and has encouraged me to improve upon these through practice, thereby showing how challenges have been undertaken.Having taken art classes as part of the IB curriculum, I have been exposed to a vast variety of the styles and genres, and have been given the opportunity to canvass an arsenal of resources to supplement by passion towards the subject.

My deep-rooted interested was cultivated when I contrasted Gustav Klimt’s masterpiece: Woman in Gold, and Van Gogh’s genius: Starry Night, in a comparative presentation a couple of years ago. The intricate detailing and the similarity of tools and colors used within the two pieces and how they resulted in drastically different artworks simply amazed me and propelled me to explore art in a different light; not as merely as medium for self-discovery but a platform to present different facets of one’s self accurately. I often believed that life in all its superficial glory is transient, and that art was a well-planned medium to imprint one’s life story for generations to come … Now I realize that it is in fact far more complex. My need to understand and experience this complexity for myself is what drove me to develop into an avid but amateur painter.

My love for the subject was heightened by my participation in Saisa Art as I had to make a limited exhibition that served as the culmination of my learning and experiences. Since that year’s workshop was hosted in Sri Lanka, the sources of inspiration were derived from the localized cultural epigrams and existing art, especially focusing on flora and botany. Initially, I struggled to agree on a starting point for my exhibition as my visits to the cultural hotspots in Colombo had overwhelmed me with an influx of ideas all mingling with each other, however I overcame this by showing perseverance and commitment to my activity. However, I soon stopped segregating my ideas and celebrated the divergence of Sri Lankan culture; various art forms, smells, sounds and tastes and decided upon basing the foundation of my exhibition on Ceylon’s life source. The water lily, credited as the national flower of Sri Lanka, kept recurring to the forefront of my mind when deciding upon an initial idea, partly because the conventional outline of the flower was the blueprint for most architectural wonders and tapestry embroidering the island.  Thus, staying true to my roots, I chose the water lily as my source of inspiration and water colors as the medium.

 

Although I had a brief hiatus after two months from Saisa Art, I renewed my passion during the first lockdown, inherently planning a CAS experience.I hoped to continue art centering on botany and celebrating the diverse flora of Sri Lanka through water color, however I significantly altered my approach as I decided to paint tiles rather than paper; leaving an image of permanence. Partly due to the lack of a deadline and also alluding to my artistic curiosity, I used acrylic paint and resin to create less abstract and more symmetrical floral works. As detailed in my corona series of blog posts, I opted to self-invent a form of order to the otherwise chaotic and disruptive landscape the Corona triggered and as such, even my art work was reflective of my subconscious attempting to find comfort in directive.

Come second wave of DLP, I am just beginning to explore the world of botany in new lights and is currently shifting to fabric and stitching. I have been somewhat impressed in the way in which I have approached the subject of art, as I have tackled it through many mediums and will continue to do so on a subject that I simply adore.