Visiki Art Gallery
Walter Kulasooriya is an extremely gifted veteran artist, dedicated for painting since childhood. Walter Kulasooriya has been awarded the prestigious Presidential Award for 06 years at the Annual Art Exhibitions organized by the Ceylon Society of Arts and at the “Shilpa 2006” Presidential Award Ceremony organized by the Ministry of Rural Industries & Self Employment Promotion. Walter has been awarded “highly commended painting” 05 times at the said exhibitions proving his extended excellence in the field of the arts.
Walter is professional in many medium to do his paintings, but very specific on Oil on Canvass, Water Colours, Earth Colour Paintings and Herbal Paintings.
Earth Colour Paintings: This is a unique creation of art by Walter which he uses to portray fascinating sceneries depicting the old traditional heritage of Sri Lanka by making his own mixture of colours with a combination of different varieties of soil found in Ratnapura, Habarana, Welimada and Hambantota areas.
Herbal Paintings: This is another experiment by this devoted artist to show the world the power of art and its unique beauty attached with nature over hundreds of years with human life. Walter has researched on his own to find a mixture of colours taking the juices of plants, trees, aurvedic medicinal seeds such as Aralu, Bulu, Nelli etc and make a mixture of nature colours as it is, to paint his thoughts.
This renowned artist takes an effort to gift the Sri Lankan values and old proud culture that existed for thousands of years in this country which gave a simple, relaxing and contented lifestyle to its men lived here. Therefore, he paints various occasions of the Sri Lankan life style, such as the buddhist monk, temple, perahera, old clay kitchen, ploughing and threshing in the paddy field using buffaloes, grinding stones, still fisherman, guarding chena cultivation etc with a view to communicate about our own rich culture to Sri Lankans and people living in other countries.
Walter’s childhood experiences, environment and memories have helped him immensely to improve his inborn talent of painting with a great love towards the nature. Walter’s native place is Demataluwa which is a very rural yet fascinating village in the Kurunegala district which gave him birth in 1945. The village was rich with acres of prosperous paddy fields seen as a green cloth, tanks, ponds and streams full of water, beautiful waterfalls and large rocky areas. Apart from that, he traveled various rural areas with his family whenever his father got a new appointment to a new school, as he was a head master then. He enjoyed his childhood very much in those villages such as Basawakkulama, Bakmeewewa, Mahananneriya in the Wanni Hatpattuwa of Wayamba province.
This romantic atmosphere coupled with the simple and peaceful lifestyle of the villagers created beautiful thoughts which he made into arts.
After his marriage, walter shifted to Galle, his current residence, his wife’s native place. After which he started his own art gallery named “Visiki Art Gallery” there. Nevertheless, even today, he fondly remembers his own native place with a lot of pride & gratitude which gave an enormous backing for his career and made him a man with human values. Walter held many exhibitions in Sri Lanka and outside, such as in England, Germany and Austria.
In the year 2004, he faced the biggest ever tragedy in life, that was tsunami which delivered a deadly blow to Visiki Art Gallery. The ruthless waves took his millions worth paintings, invaluable awards and some cash into the sea. He is now rising from tsunami catastrophe believing it as “karma” that he may have committed in one of his previous births that came on him.
He thanks to FCCISL Back to Business project and several other donors who gave hand to him to stand on his feet today. He is embarking on a new journey as tsunami took everything he had, but could not take away his creativity and shatter his resilience.
Even though his fate was disturbing his journey, there were sun shines in his life. Walter Kulasooriya was honoured by the Governor of the Southern Province in 2005 for the reputation he earned for the Southern Province through aesthetic field of arts. He was awarded with the prestigious “Dakshina Abhimani” at the “Dakshina Abhimani 2005 Felicitation Programme”. He was assisted to hold an art exhibition at the Carpenter Performing Arts Centre, California State University in February 2008 with the assistance of the Consular General of Sri Lanka in Los Angeles during the 60th Anniversary Celebrations of Sri Lanka’s Independence. This was a fund raising activity too for him to re-build his art gallery as well as to support re-establishing the livelihood of dozens of artists in the Southern province of Sri Lanka.
The life vision of Walter is to use his talent and experience to protect our Sri Lankan tradition, ancient arts and nature colours that amazed the world and to reinstate the simple, rich and peaceful lifestyle our grand parents enjoyed in the good old days.
Summary of awards he won…
v 1996
· Presidential Award - painting “Landscape” at the 109th annual art exhibition organized by the Ceylon Society of Arts.
· Highly commended – painting “Sinharaja Adaviya” (Sinharaja Forest) at the above event.
· Highly commended – painting “Pin Bima” (Sacred Land) at the above event.
· Certificate of Merit – in the miscellaneous craft sector at the National Handicraft Exhibition organized by the National Craft Council at the Presidential Handicrafts Awards 1996.
v 1998
· Presidential Award – painting “Veedi Pawla” (Pavement Family) at the 111th annual art exhibition organized by the Ceylon Society of Arts
· Highly commended – painting “Environment & Birds” at the above event.
v 1999
· Highly commended – painting “Flower Power” at the 112th annual art exhibition organized by the Ceylon Society of Arts
· Certificate of Merit – painting “Landscape” at the 112th annual art exhibition organized by the Ceylon Society of Arts
· Certificate of Merit – painting “Yahapath Hesirima” (decent behaviour), the 1st place in the Arts category at the State Art and Crafts Event, organized by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs – Art & Craft Sub Board.
v 2000
· Presidential Award – painting “Rejuvenation” at the 113th annual art exhibition organized by the Ceylon Society of Arts.
· Prime Minister’s Award – painting “Rejuvenation” at the above event.
v 2001
· Prime Minister’s Award – painting “Divine Music” at the 114th annual art exhibition organized by the Ceylon Society of Arts.
v 2002
· Presidential Award – painting “Composition aim” at the 115th annual art exhibition organized by the Ceylon Society of Arts.
· Highly commended – painting “Preparation” at the above event.
v 2004
· Presidential Award – painting “Field of Feathers” at the 116th annual art exhibition organized by the Ceylon Society of Arts.
v 2005
· Dakshina Abhimani – Honoured with prestigious “Dakshina Abhimani Award” at the “Dakshina Abhimani 2005” felicitation organized by the Southern Provincial Council at its 05th anniversary on the 24th September 2005.
v 2006
· Certificate of Merit – At the “Shilpa 2006” competition for skill performance in traditional arts (Paintings) section, organized by the Ministry of Rural Industries and Self Employment Promotion at the Presidential Awards 2006.
