Raja Segar

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Raja Segar 2013
Segar signature in black paint.jpg

Raja Segar (born December 4, 1951 in Colombo ), also known as Segar for short, is a painter and sculptor from Sri Lanka . He is self-taught.

life and work

After attending school at St. Michaels College, Polwatte, he started working in the accounting department of a beverage manufacturer at the age of 19. While preparing for his accounting exams, he spent much of his time self-paced in the British Council library in Colombo. He was mainly concerned with books and magazines about art and artists. In his newspaper interviews, he states that the library was his art college. The monotonous work in the accounting department bored him over time. Segar began to design his own greeting cards and used them to depict everyday life in Sri Lanka.

His cards became an instant hit. Until then, most maps in Sri Lanka were copies of images from western countries. Art lovers who saw his cards asked him to make large paintings too. So he became a painter. In order to give his art new expression, Segar began to experiment. He dealt with the refraction effect of light in abstract and figurative cubism . He works with watercolors and oils and uses mixed techniques. He uses steel in the field of sculpture . Many of his pictures show gods and religious motifs, but Segar is himself an atheist .

In 1988 he had serious suicidal thoughts after a failed love affair . Allegedly it was the thought of more than 20 unsigned pictures that prevented him from carrying out his plan at the last moment.

Segar lives in a house designed by the architect Minnette de Silva . Segar had the idea for this house in his imagination when he was 12 years old.

reception

His works have been shown in solo and group exhibitions in Australia, England, India and Sri Lanka. His art has also been featured in newspapers, documentaries, and magazines including Reader's Digest . In 1996 Segar had his 19th solo exhibition in Colombo. He donated the proceeds of more than US $ 5,000 to the Trust Fund for the Neurosurgical Department of the National Hospital of Sri Lanka. His wife Vejeyashanthinie had died of brain stem cancer that same year at the age of 29. His most famous paintings are The Housing Scheme (1977) and Buddha (1987).

  • Black tea picker, oil on canvas 2007.

  • Women with pots, oil 2011.

  • The enclosure Scheme of Maligawatta, watercolor 1979

  • Birthday greeting for Spinndonna, page from the artist's diary 2007

  • Drawing of a bullock car,

  • Lovers, watercolor 2007

  • Tsunami survivors, watercolor

  • Bonjour Mag cover by Segar

  • Women sell fish in the Colombo fish market, 100 × 130 cm, oil on canvas, 2011.

  • Two horses and one women

International art exhibitions

  • 1988 Chetana Gallery Bombay - India
  • 1990 Mosman Gallery, Sydney , Australia
  • 1991 Gallery 202 London W11 - England
  • 1992 The Fiveway Gallery, Paddington, Sydney, Australia
  • 1994 Arteast Gallery. Vancouver BE Canada
  • 2002 Art Exquisite Raffles hotel - Singapore
  • 2002 SAARC Artist meet - New Delhi, India
  • 2003 Jamaat Art Gallery - Mumbai, India
  • 2004 Women on top 'Jamaat Art Gallery'
  • 2006 Lakshana Art Gallery, Chennai, India
  • 2008 Delhi Diplomatic Art Circle, Delhi, India
  • 2009 MFHusain Art Gallery, Delhi, India.
  • 2010 Alankritha Art Gallery, Hyderabad, India.
  • 2013 ION Gallery, Singapore

Solo exhibitions in Sri Lanka

Web links

Commons : Segar (artist)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Segar, Raja
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Sri Lankan painter and sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH 4th December 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Colombo