City School of Architecture
 

Bhutan Trails

MICHELLE JAMES

One of our very own students, Sandeepa Vithanage of Studio 3, was chosen to represent the country in the annual SAARC Paintings and Art exhibition. He was one of 6 young artists to represent Sri Lanka this year. He was readily selected with this prestigious honor to represent the nation due to his receipt of the state award for Fine Art in 2010.

He reached the capital city of Bhutan, Thimphu on the 24th of April. And met up to 50 representatives from all SAARC countries. On the first four days of the trip all the representatives were kept busy at a workshop held to develop their conceptual ideas and later put down on two 5'x3' canvases. They were provided with two themes, 'Nature At It's Best' and. 'Ancient Landscape'. During the workshop hours, a colorful exchange of ideas, concepts and knowledge took place between all the participants. This seemed to be one of the highlights of Sandeepa's trip as he obtained first hand insight into the different styles of painting and drawing from all over South Asia. He was able to brainstorm and analyze ideas at an intellectual level among all these budding young artists. They were given a total of 20 hours to work on these canvases which were then exhibited on the final day of the trip to which all the dignitaries of the SAARC, the general public and tourists were invited.

Another highlight of his trip was when the painting he produced after 20 hours of work was bought by the Thai- Bhutan Ambassador to be gifted to the Queen of Thailand. This once in a life time event will be a treasured moment out of all his achievements, as he brought pride to his country and people.