Quotes
“I paint my own reality, shaped by experience, emotion, and form.” “Art must challenge the eye before it comforts it.” “Colour is not decoration; it is meaning.”
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Upcoming Show
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06 / 14
2021
“I loved the opportunity to spread my knowledge and enthusiasm amongst the youngsters at Bishop’s College! It was indeed a totally gratifying 19 years with many arts related events and exhibitions.”
“Incidentally, my fascination with textile design in ‘Batik’ evolved during this period and it was duly introduced to the school art curriculum with an appropriate exhibition.”
- Swanee Jayawardene
1930–2010
1930–2010
“A well known artist and art dealer wanted to set up an exhibition of my work and took away nearly 500 of my pictures that I had done at the peak of my creative life – and I never saw them again nor were they ever exhibited.”
- Swanee Jayawardene
1930–2010
“Artists here were sometimes constrained because of the need to portray Sri Lankan art and culture.”
“This is wrong because culture itself is not static but is subject to growth and change.”
- Swanee Jayawardene
year
“There is perfection in her work. The decorative aspect of her art makes the paintings appear somewhat experimental in form.”
“The ability to change according to her mood makes the works interesting.”
- D. B. Kappagoda
year
“She took art lessons as well as quarreled with some of the main players of the ’43 group, but everyone stood in thrall to her good looks, colorful petulance and personality”
“For her use of bold colours, (at a time when colour restraint was much in evidence among the older artists of the ’43 group), and provocative images she earned the admiration of painters like Ivan Peries and Harry Pieris.”
- Prof. S. B. Dissanayake
1968
“Swanee Jayawardene is more active as an artist and utilized the Batik techniques as an art form working on short yardage lengths, She also makes tie and dye fabrics. This is another technique that should be developed.”
“She has a very fine feeling for colour and pattern and her sound judgement and artistic sense should be utilized if a centralized design program is organized.”
- Kellar Report on Handcrafts of Sri Lanka - 1968
1968
Swanee Jayawardene – an exhibiting member of the 43 Group in the fifties – was synonymous with the art of batik, at a time when the great fashion boutiques of Europe and Scandinavia, raged with the medium’s colourful vogue apparel.
- Nalin Wijesekera
1968
Swanee appeared more interested in the mystery behind everyday occurrences though she often dwelt on the abstract concepts of art and the philosophies of life.
- Kumudu Amarasingham
1968
Her paintings had the eye-catching effect with the chosen colour and texture. There was a remarkable sensitivity to the form and movement. The feeling for beauty can be seen in her late works especially in batik and tie and dye technique.
- D. B. Kappagoda
1968
She took art lessons as well as quarrelled with some of the main players of the ’43 group, but everyone stood in thrall to her good looks, colourful petulance and personality.
For her use of bold colours, (at a time when colour restraint was much in evidence among the older artists of the ’43 group), and provocative images she earned the admiration of painters like Ivan Peries and Harry Pieris.
- Prof. S. B. Dissanayake
1968
In Swanee’s work there is a certain Expressionist urgency, like in some of Justin Deraniyagala’s and Chaim Soutine’s work
- Prof. S. B. Dissanayake
1968
Swanee is a highly gifted creative artist. A visit to her boutique will convince anyone of her extraordinary ability, sense of colour and originality. She is able to make a success of anything she puts her hand to whether painting or making textiles.
- Prof. S. B. Dissanayake
1968
Swanee’s gift of assimilation by observation and intrinsic skill for creativity with colour and line was evidentiary at an early stage in life.
- Savitri Mant
1968
Swanee saw good and evil in stark terms and this found expression in her work. She laboured to produce “perfect” pieces and would often tell her children that one needed solid technique to attempt abstract paintings; if not anything you turned out would be fundamentally weak.
- Smriti Daniel
1968
Swanee Jayawardene would occasionally refer to painting as her “fourth child.” There were times when it claimed her utterly and then she would stand at the easel in one corner of their small two bedroom flat in Bambalapitiya, wielding her brush at a furious pace and producing as many as five canvases in a day.
- Smriti Daniel
1968
Swanee Jayawardene is more active as an artist and utilised the batik technique as an art form working on short yardage lengths. She also makes tie and dye fabrics. This is another technique that should be developed. She has a very fine feeling for colour and pattern, and her sound judgment and artistic sense should be utilised if a centralised design programme is organised.
- The Kellar report on Handcrafts of Ceylon
1968
She is a pioneer in the sense that it was she who first introduced batik as an art medium to the school curriculum. Born with an instinctive reaction to colour and light she grew into it.
- Sumadhu Weerawarne
1968
You might wonder what Swanee the artist is doing surrounded by an assortment of handbags. These are ones she makes in between teaching and painting out of odd bits of left-over materials, cardboard and cord. The bags made by an artist just has to be a little more refined in taste and combinations and of course design, from those others make.
- The Ceylon Observer - 1961
2000
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