Visual arts students enhance skills in portrait and mural painting |15 September 2017

Students of the Seychelles Institute of Art and Design (SIAD) have this week been benefitting from a portrait and mural painting workshop conducted by a professional artist from Sri Lanka.

Since September 12 Suneth Arivanda, a senior lecturer and head of the department of painting at the University of Performing and Visual Arts (UPVA), has been imparting his knowledge to around 40 SIAD students. These are students following full-time programmes in Fine Art Year 2 and Certificate in drawing painting.

Mr Arivanda’s exchange with the local art school is the first activities performed under the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between SIAD and UPVA, signed in July this year.

The workshop was made possible through support and collaboration from the Sri Lankan embassy, the National Arts Council (NAC), the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development and a company called Skyland.

During this workshop students learned and improved on techniques such as how to apply colours on canvas, 3-D painting, how to use lines in portraits and so forth.

Mr Arivanda said it is the first time that students at SIAD have been given the chance to draw still life portraits using live models.

He further complimented SIAD stating that some of its students are of high caliber and are as talented, and perhaps even more so, as other students he has encountered during his profession.

“They are talented, they are very talented. Their teachers have taught them well,” he noted.

Elza Lespoir, a student who has been refining her skills in portrait drawing as well as her palette knife technique, said she has learnt a lot from the four-day workshop.

“I appreciate that we were able to see an international artist’s take on drawing and art in general. Now I know how to play with dark and soft lights and more importantly how to make my portraits into 3D,” she enthusiatically told Seychelles NATION.

It is not the first time that an artist, either local or international, conducts a workshop at SIAD.  According to Christine Payet, the school’s director, the institution has an ongoing visiting artist programme which caters for these types of exchange.

The workshop will culminate today with an exhibition of the final artworks created by the students and will be held in the school compound from 2pm onwards.