EXPLORING THE CANVAS AND LIFE OF GAMINI RATNAVIRA

Among the many Sri Lankan artists who carried the spirit of the island into the wider world, Gamini Ratnavira occupies a singular place. A master wildlife artist whose career now spans more than half a century, he has painted, sketched, sculpted and preserved nature through every possible medium—oil, acrylic, gouache, watercolour, and bronze. His works are both art and testament, capturing the sacred symmetry of life as seen through the eyes of one who has never ceased to marvel at it.

- By Avishka Mario Senewiratne

From the outset, Ratnavira’s art was not simply about animals or landscapes; it was about relationship—the living bond between species, and between man and the world he inhabits. Each brushstroke reveals a Buddhist reverence for coexistence rather than conquest. His canvases shimmer with birds, beasts, and flora arranged in subtle harmony, as though the artist had momentarily lifted the veil on a universe at peace with itself.

The earliest artists who painted the fauna of Sri Lanka were Cornelius de Bevere born in Ceylon during the Dutch period and was well known for his work on the natural history of the country under the patronage of the famed naturalist Dutch Governor Gideon Loten. A century and a half later, others such as Dutch Johannes Gerardus Keulemans (who illustrated birds in the seminal work on Birds of Ceylon by Australian Col. Vincent Legge, Anglo-French Hippolyte Silvaf, Brits such G. M. Henry, W. W. A. Philips and local born Frederick Kelaart and Cicely Gwynne Lushington, have contributed in their own way in painting and documenting on the avifauna of Sri Lanka. The Irish Andrew Nicholl, who was the illustrator for the works of Sir James Emerson Tennent is another brilliant artist whose works on the natural history of Ceylon are of important study. Almost all of these individuals depict their avifauna in a more westernized, colonial style. In such a milieu, what Ratnavira offers today, in his own unique style of appeasing nature as it is and the coexistence between man, is both refreshing and worthwhile. It this feature, that I want to stress on, most profoundly.

Early Life and Awakening to Nature