From a Review in the Sri Lanka Sunday Observer, 29 November 1981
"To me painting is a way of saying what I feel. But sometimes the result surprises me as well." It was Jayalakshmi Satyendra talking about painting and herself on the eve of her departure to the Soviet Union to hold a two week exibition of her paintings at the invitation of the Soviet Cultural Ministry and the Peoples Union of Artists of the USSR.
Jayalakshmi made her first impact on the art scene when she carried away both the First and Second Prizes at the Annual Exhibition of the Ceylon Society of Arts in 1973. The following year she won the only prize that was awarded for portraiture. She has not looked back since.
Her first one person exhibition was at the Lionel Wendt (in Colombo) in 1975 and she was one of five artists who were featured in the Grand Galerie in the same year. Her second one person exibition was at the invitation of the German Cultural Institute in 1979.
The exibition of 50 paintings which Jayalakshmi is taking to Moscow shows a diversity of style which is suprising in any artist. She feels that style should not confine expression. Jayalakshmi's extraordinary command and use of color gives her paintings a vibrancy and power which attracts and rivets attention.
Her painting 'Thoughts' reflects the restless fluttering of the mind and search for tranquility in the calmness of contemplation. There is a touch of Van Gogh in some of her landscapes where she has used the palette knife as a substitute for the paint brush."
