The two oil paintings are of a coral scene under the oceans.The naming of the paintings refers to the fact that the colonial British named coral after deer and stag found in the English countryside. The coral in the paintings glisten like jewels in an under water scene. The paint swirls and curls hugging contours of coral bed. There are electric colours that are vibrant with apprehension. The depths and crevices are embedded with pockets of emeralds and encrusted with diamond like  incantations. I wanted to create a cacophony of light and colour. It is a world full of confusion and chaos. This is a forest under the sea. The coral send out protrusions that have an innate fight for survival in the oceans depths.

Chudamani Clowes

In the medieval period of India, the art works of the Mughal and Rajput style of miniature painting have a feeling of prosperity and delicate beauty, blended with sublime inner feelings and emotions. The Pahari style of painting emerged as the result of the marriage between the folk art of the hills, with the Mughal technique, these beautiful paintings were predominantly found in the regions of Western India and the Himalayan foothills. To give form to their expressions, Bhanudatta’s Rasamanjari 15th century love poem was one of the most popular sources of inspiration. Miniature Paintings on Rasamanjari inspired me to synthesize the sense and flavour of Kama-rati. 

Yuwantha Yasas

Rasa is the nature of a particular sentiment or state of mind aroused by an art form, as described in ancient Sanskrit scriptures. Sringar Rasa in particular has a strong element of sexual passion which does not exist in the other eight Rasas. When brought to the highest climate through love and devotion, it is transformed into Bhakti Rasa, the expression of divine love. And it is this very same transformation that is evoked by my new series , to achieve this I lived and studied in India in the Holy city of Banaras, where I came in contact with the most relevant art works, museums and sacred places.

Yuwantha Yasas 

Together with a fervent dedication for painting, it has now crystallized into a unique style of painting, merging the ancient and the contemporary, together with elemental cosmological and philosophical Indian thought, emotions and principles. New series visually manifests in my canvases and prints poetic images where the veil of the temporal nature of the moment, materializes into a timeless event beyond time, space, birth and death.

Yuwantha Yasas