Ena de Silva

Ena de Silva (née Aluwihare) (22 October 1922 – 29 October 2015) was a notable Sri Lankan artist,[1][2] credited with re-establishing the country's batik industry.[3]

Ena de Silva
Born
Ena Aluwihare

(1922-10-23)23 October 1922
Matale, Sri Lanka
Died29 September 2015(2015-09-29) (aged 92)
Matale, Sri Lanka
NationalitySri Lankan
Spouse(s)Osmund de Silva
ChildrenAnil Gamini Jayasuriya, Anula Kusum

Family

Ena Aluwihare was born on 23 October 1922[3] in Matale, the youngest of two daughters to Sir Richard Aluwihare (1895 – 1976), a civil servant who later served as the first Ceylonese Inspector General of Police (1947 – 1955) and Ceylon's High Commissioner in India (1957 – 1963), and Lady Aluwihare née Lucille Moonemalle.[4][5] In 1941, at nineteen she eloped and married Osmund de Silva, an Deputy Inspector General of Police, who served as the Personal Assistant to her father and would succeed him as Inspector General of Police[2] (1955 – 1959). They had two children, a son, Anil Gamini Jayasuriya, also a gifted artist and conservationist, and a daughter, Anula Kusum Gilmour.

Career

De Silva studied art in her youth however her artistic career began, after she and her husband approached Geoffrey Bawa in 1960 to design a house for them in Colombo.[4][6] She developed a long term professional relationship with Bawa designing batik tapestries for a number of his buildings, including the Bentota Beach Hotel and the Sri Lankan Parliament Building.[5][7] In 1960, she formed a firm with Laki Senanayake, Professor Reggie Siriwardena and her son, Anil Gamini Jayasuriya.[1]

In 1964 she established the Matale Heritage Centre, which produced batiks.[3] Following her husband's death she spent two years as a Commonwealth consultant on handicrafts to the British Virgin Islands,[3][6] upon her return she moved back to her ancestral home in Aluwihare in 1982.[3]

De Silva was honoured with a lifetime achievement award by the Geoffrey Bawa Trust in 2011.[2]

gollark: I mean, the HDD and never-changed thermal paste probably didn't help.
gollark: And one of my parents has (they're replacing it now, though) a ~10-year-old laptop which ran glacially slowly.
gollark: I used it for several years when I was a foolish younger person.
gollark: Plus updates are annoying. I can update *mostly* without reboots (they take 25 seconds anyway) and in the background.
gollark: And it'll still randomly waste resources for no reason.

References
  1. Kannangara, Yashasvi (24 July 2011). "Ena's kaleidoscope of colour". Sunday Times. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  2. "Ena de Silva no more". Sunday Observer. 1 November 2015. Archived from the original on 18 August 2016. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  3. Maduwage, Shihara (22 October 2015). "An embodiment of feminine power". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  4. Peebles, Patrick (2015). Historical Dictionary of Sri Lanka. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 105. ISBN 9781442255852.
  5. Illankoon, Duvindi (8 November 2015). "She inspired, she empowered". Sunday Times. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  6. Gunawardena, Charles A. (2005). Encyclopedia of Sri Lanka. Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. pp. 108–109. ISBN 9781932705485.
  7. Daswatte, Channa (27 April 2013). "Travelling with Ena, is an especially enriching experience". The Island. Retrieved 31 October 2016.

Further reading
  • Wijesinha, Rajiva (2002). Gilding the Lily: Celebrating Ena de Silva. Colombo: Lunuganga Trust.
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