In Bhawana, artist Wasantha Namaskara speaks a language of instinct, emotion, and meditative stillness. His journey as an artist is intertwined with his practice of meditation, a discipline that has deeply shaped his creative expression. His work is a product of surrender, an unfiltered stream of emotion spilling onto the canvas and paper. With each brushstroke, he seeks neither complexity nor perfection but a pure, visceral connection to the self.
Paradise Road Galleries recently unveiled Bhawana, an exhibition by the esteemed artist Wasantha Namaskara. Running until April 24, the exhibition invites viewers to immerse themselves in Namaskara’s contemplative approach to artistic expression. This exhibition marks his first solo gallery showcase, though his art has lived in smaller, quieter spaces before. A turning point came when he traveled to India, immersing himself in a meditation center. The experience transformed him, unraveling and reshaping the way he viewed art.
“I do not hold on to names, for art should not be confined by labels. Art is not just aesthetic—it is feeling, it is emotion.” Namaskara resists the idea of defining his work with words. “I cannot tell you what I was thinking when I created these pieces, because then you will not find your own story in them,” he says. “This is not something I forced; it is effortless. Don’t exhaust yourself writing this piece, because creating it wasn’t exhausting at all. Let it flow.”
And so, his art flows, like thought, like breath, like emotion too vast to be contained.
Please note that the interpretations and descriptions in this article are solely the writer’s perspective.
Bhawana 1-24, 2019, Acrylic on Paper, 30 cm x 21 cm: a series born from silence and rejection. These pieces rest upon fragments of printed articles, media pitches, and press releases he once sent in hopes of visibility. “No one responded,” he admits. “So, I gathered those words, those unanswered calls, and painted my emotions over them. This is what remains.”
But some did listen, like Udayashanth Fernando, a man who “travels through my art.” “It is not easy to step inside my work, to let it take you somewhere unfamiliar, yet he moves through it effortlessly. I am grateful to create a space for that kind of wandering.”
Bhawana 1, 2019, Acrylic on Paper, 30 cm x 21 cm: a meditation in form. Stillness interrupted; pure thought layered with the weight of the unsettled. Chaos and clarity coexist. Meditation does not erase darkness, but it reveals it, allowing the mind to see without illusion.
Namaskara’s Bhawana series is an offering. It is an invitation to step into something unspoken, to feel without direction, to embrace a feeling where emotion takes form and meaning is left to the heart of the beholder.
