From a Review in the Sri Lanka Sunday Observer, 29 November
1981
"To me painting is a way of saying what I feel. But sometimes the result
surprises me as well." It was Jayalakshmi Satyendra talking about painting
and herself on the eve of her departure to the Soviet Union to hold a two
week exibition of her paintings at the invitation of the Soviet Cultural
Ministry and the Peoples Union of Artists of the USSR.
Jayalakshmi made her first impact on the art scene when she carried away
both the First and Second Prizes at the Annual Exhibition of the Ceylon
Society of Arts in 1973. The following year she won the
only prize that was awarded for portraiture. She has not looked back
since.
Her first one person exhibition was at the Lionel Wendt (in Colombo) in
1975 and she was one of five artists who were featured in the Grand Galerie
in the same year. Her second one person exibition was at the invitation of
the German Cultural Institute in 1979.
The exibition of 50 paintings which Jayalakshmi is taking to Moscow shows
a diversity of style which is suprising in any artist. She feels that style
should not confine expression. Jayalakshmi's
extraordinary command and use of color
gives her paintings a vibrancy and power which attracts and rivets
attention.
Her painting 'Thoughts' reflects the restless fluttering of the mind and
search for tranquility in the calmness of contemplation. There is a touch of
Van Gogh in
some of
her landscapes where she
has
used the palette knife
as a substitute for the paint brush."
