By Eleanor Wilson
If you take a peek into Ananda Weerasekera’s Narre Warren South home, the vibrant canvases that fill the walls are a clear display of his love for nature and art.
For the soon-to-be 85-year-old, painting has always been a hobby, but it was only upon migrating to Australia from Sri Lanka 22 years ago that he began to revel in the pastime.
Next month, the Old Cheese Factory will play host to 35 of Mr Weerasekera’s paintings, as they go on public exhibition – a debut decades in the making.
“I started painting in school back in Sri Lanka and then when I moved to Australia I began painting with oils, because the materials are readily available here,” Mr Weerasekera said.
“I saw a few exhibitions with oil paintings and thought why not give it a try.”
A 10-year stint in the Navy gave Mr Weerasekera an appreciation for painting seascapes, his favourite being a reproduction of a painting depicting the sinking of the Bismarck, which took him several months to complete.
The grandfather of seven’s career as a landscaper has also guided the subject of his art, with striking orchids, frangipanis and birds of paradise paintings furnishing his painting room at the front of the family home.
In addition to being eye catching, he says the theme of bright, block colours present in his paintings holds a deeper meaning.
“It’s connected to my outlook in life really – I want everything to have brilliance. I don’t like dull colours, I always like to enhance it somehow,” he said.
Mr Weerasekera said he paints “whenever he finds the time”.
Most of his free time is now spent with his wife, who he cares for, but he jumps at the chance to lose himself in his painting room when he can.
“It’s very relaxing for me to paint,” he said.
Mr Weerasekera’s art exhibition – Flowers & Seascapes – will see 35 paintings exhibited from Tuesday 14 February to Monday 10 April at the Old Cheese Factory, 34 Homestead Road, Berwick.
