He likes to call himself an “environmental painter,” who wants to reach out to youngsters and sensitise them towards environment-centric issues. Meet Senaka Senanayake, an artist from Sri Lanka, who was recently in the capital to participate in the Conservation on Canvas exhibition organised by the WWF and Taj Group of Hotels. His painting on the endangered rain forests is one of the artworks to be auctioned at a fund-raiser for conserving environment.
“I basically did this painting as a part of the project with WWF. Several artists have contributed in this exhibition and it is a great honour to be a part of this project.”
“I specialise in painting endangered rainforests and animals, and most of my other paintings are also abstract expressions of nature. I am inspired by the foliage, trees, flora and birds that I see in these forests. It is my passion, and I am very concerned about my planet,” he adds.
The artist also works with his cousin in Sri Lanka on an environmental project, and he says, “I am trying to do my bit to save the environment in small little ways. Back home, I work with NGOs and greeting card companies and allow them to use my paintings for spreading the awareness. I am also planning to purchase some barren properties with my cousin and reforest the land.”
The colours of nature that Senanayake depicts through his paintings are all inspired from real life forms. The artist’s next exhibition will be on coral reefs of the world, about which he informs, “I am currently working on a series of paintings that are inspired from endangered coral reefs of the world. As a child I used to swim and go for snorkeling and I enjoyed the colourful corals, but today I see that most of them are dying due to global warming. I want to tell people about this through my painting and ask them to protect the coral reefs from dying. I hope the next generation does not repeat the same mistakes that we did.”