Warrior

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Ayubowan! This is a traditional greeting in Sri Lanka meaning "may you have the gift of long life".

I’ve been drawing painting and writing all my life- my mother recalls me drawing on the floor with chalk when I was perhaps four or five and I recall writing and illustrating bedtime stories for my younger brother when I was around nine years old.

I admire the art of Hiroshige and Hokusai as well as Monet, Van Gogh, Mucha and Toulouse-Lautrec and these influences are apparent in my artwork. I create works that are bold yet restrained, dramatic but beautifully simple with a touch of playfulness or whimsy.

I’m particularly fond of inks and several of my artworks on paper are ink drawings which have been in some instances coloured in using a very restrained palette. Drawing in ink and letting go of the quest for perfectionism as ink cannot be corrected is liberating. I also love life drawing and find using inks to sketch a life drawing helps me capture the essence of the moment.

I have lived on three different continents and am fortunate to have a rich and varied lived experience to draw on for my work. How I belong, connect and contribute in a place has been an ongoing journey of self exploration . My work draws on these themes of belonging and interconnectedness in a joyful and sometimes whimsical fashion so as to better engage the viewer and draw them into a dialogue with the work.

My wish with all my work is that the viewer experiences even for a moment some of the joy I felt whilst creating it.