Local Artist’s Painting Fetches Rs. 400,000 at Kala Pola Auc

[rekha2010]

Raja Segar’s oil on canvas painting titled “Woman And Horses” was swept away for the sum of Rs. 400,000 last week at the annual Kala Pola where unknown artists alongside well established ones exhibited their work on the streets of Ananda Commaraswamy Mawatha, Colombo 7.

For the first time in 18 years since the Kala Pola began, the trustees of the George Keyt Foundation introduced an Art Auction. John Keells sponsored the event and assisted in the Art Auction.

The bidder, a Sri Lankan who resides in the USA, sent her bid via email and Segar when speaking to The Sunday Leader said the person had on previous occasions purchased three of his paintings. A self tutored painter who often works simultaneously on three pieces, and a talented sculptor as well; Segar’s vibrant style which often pays homage to the beauty of women, has been qualified as one of a kind.

Initially nothing pre-destined him to become a painter. Gifted with numbers and mathematics, he worked in the credit control department of a reputed company. By chance, he began making his own greeting cards and those who received them began to demand seeing larger versions of them, and that is how Segar’s career as one of the most reputed painters in Sri Lanka began.

The artist meanwhile maintained that the idea to hold an auction was “an excellent one” which unfortunately had not yet caught on in Sri Lanka. He hopes one day to be able to create an international market for Sri Lankan art. “Woman And Horses” was completed in 2009 and exhibited first in July of the same year at M.F Husain Gallery in India, Segar told The Sunday Leader.