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Fall
2002
Wildlife Artist Association presenting
Gamini with a
Hall of Fame Award on December 7th!
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Artist
Profile - Gamini Ratnavira |
In 1990, Gamini
met with Larry
Waggoner in Yellowstone
to discuss the wildlife art scene. They felt that it was predominantly
in the Midwest and along the East Coast, and that our Southern
and Western Wildlife artists were being neglected. They sought
to gain appreciation for this talent, and to promote and advertise
it, by forming the Southern
California Wildlife Artist Association in the early 1990's. Gamini’s role
was as an advisor and encouraging new artists to join. He also
spoke with Bob
Koenke and got
the Wildlife
Art News involved
as a means of promotion.
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| Gamini
was also instrumental in the founding of the Reflections of Nature wildlife art show in Fallbrook.
He wanted to promote the local artists and help Fallbrook become
identified as an artist colony. The first show was held in the
Palomares House with only twenty artists. As the show became
more successful, they were able to purchase the Art and Cultural
Center. The success of this show and the subsequent Jr. Wildlife
Art Show has been
very helpful to the community of Fallbrook and the artists. The
show is now in its tenth year, and between forty and fifty painters
and sculptors exhibit the first weekend of each May. Gamini has
retired from Directing the show and now just oversees his ‘baby’,
the Jr. Wildlife Art Show. He believes in educating the children
about conservation and art, and - through the children - their
families in the future. |
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Gamini’s bird
watching life list is now in the four-thousands from the thirty-six
countries he has traversed to research the flora and fauna that
he loves to paint. He recently studied the Spix Macaw at Loro
Parque in Tenerife, the Canary Islands. The Spix has been extinct
from the Caatinga forests in Brazil for one year and Gamini hopes
to raise funds through an upcoming print for the continued work
towards its captive breeding (there are currently 60) until the
numbers reach an amount to safely reintroduce to the wild.
The environmental
and conservation side of his work comes from being raised in
a beautiful tropical Island like Sri Lanka, and the Buddhist
influence in his upbringing to respect and honor all forms of
life. He has depicted thirty-eight postage stamps of the flora
and fauna of Sri Lanka; still one of his all time career highs.
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Spix Macaw |
Jewels of Brazil
- Hyacinth
Macaws |
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Gamini recently
displayed his painting Green Cheeks at Birds in Art, currently on tour. His Jewels of
the Cloud Forest (Golden Collared Macaws) was on tour with
Society
of Animal Artists,
and - this year - his Crowned Jewels of Panama (Blue Crowned
Mot Mots) is on tour with them. Last year his Ode to the Everglades
(Purple Gallinules) was on tour with the Arts for the Parks top 100.
Gamini exhibits
at the Southeastern
Wildlife Expo in
Charleston, South Carolina; the Waterfowl Festival in Easton, Maryland; the Reflections
of Nature in Fallbrook,
California; and recently exhibited one man shows in Bermuda and
at Lorro
Parque's Parrot Convention
in Tenerife, Canary Islands.
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Gamini and John Seerey-Lester taught a fabulous week long
workshop in May at his own Hidden Forest Art Gallery, and he continues to teach
one on one workshops with his students. He also has a permanent
collection of San Diego's endangered species at the San Diego Natural
History Museum,
and illustrated the Vanishing Wildlife of Texas
- including a tour of fifty-four originals - to help raise funds
for this organization. He has been published in several books
including 60 Contemporary Masters and
their Work, Best of Wildlife Art II, Even
Frogs Care and several hummingbird plates in Dr. James Clements' Birds of Peru.
Gamini recently
wed his long time partner and gallery director Lisa Albright,
and they are raising three children: Natalie-12, Beau-11, and
Brook Adam-7. They love to travel, garden, and go bird watching
together. Lisa and he have been to Africa, Panama, Bermuda, Canada,
Spain, London, and Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
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Hummingbird |
Lisa & Gamini
Married on September 15th at the house ~ hummingbirds and orchids
were
Lisa and Gamini's theme…
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An Ode to the Spix
Macaw
by Lisa Albright Ratnavira
Ode to your ancestry
your azurite blue majesty
observing your freedom
so far from reality
aware of your desire to
overcome your fragility
once in your caatinga
life aplenty
conquered by Spaniards
and greed from royalty
you love, you fear
your alarm calls saved
your indigenous peoples
and yet you were caged
for the masses
now extinct in the wild
just 60 remain in captivity
I am in awe of your beauty
your human emotions
searching my eyes
discovering my frailty
your ancestry dates back to 60 million
years prior surviving until we appeared only
200,000 years ago..we are responsible
for your extinction
forgive us our trespasses
teach us your spirituality
I pay homage to your ancestry
I believe in your eventual release to the wild
from captivity
believe in our ability to
release our greed in order
to work collectively
to ensure this reality... |
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