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From 17 January, the Croatian embassy with the British-Croatian society will be hosting
an exhibition of art focusing on the island of Sipan by the artists Arati Reddi-Devlin and
John Holder. CIL talks to Arati Reddi-Devlin about Sipan and the exhibition.
Arati Reddi-Devlin’s Paintings of Sipan
One of Arati Reddi-Devlin’s paintings
Arati was born in South Africa, but moved to England at an early age. Graduating from the London College of Printing in 1986, she continued her studies at Brighton for her Postgraduate in Fine Art Printmaking. Being awarded a British Council scholarship, she studied printmaking at Ljubljana Art Academy in 1987. She became and art teacher in 2001.
Arati has exhibited in both London and Ljubjana. Now, she is concentrating on new areas, the Sipan exhibition will feature landscapes in works not previously exhibited.
Arati tells us, “This collection has taken a few years to bring together and are primarily about looking at the familiar and seeing with new eyes. I am particularly interested in the patterns created within the landscapes and my graphics background often forces its way out in the black and white drawings. These works represent the sense of great distance in a landscape and show patterns and textures of the flora, fauna and sea. The schema is detailed and in some parts observed and elsewhere imagined. I am also interested in the depth and dimension of the sky which we so often miss seeing in London because of local obstructions such as buildings and people!”
Singing Blue Tree
We asked her about her interest in Sipan, an island close to Dubrovnik. “I first visited Sipan 24 years ago. The island was a place where my husband had spent most of his summers. His parents had found the island by accident on a fish pick trip when he was a child. As such he spent nearly all his summers on the island. I have spent most summers visiting the island although we were unable to go there for a few years during the war. I have always drawn island scenes whilst on holiday, but the earlier drawings were more for practice and dealt with extending my skills in observational drawing. The theme of my work at this time was about primitive art and not landscapes.”
“However, in 2005 I spent some months out of season on the island and it was
at this point that I was struck with the landscape. Having only seen the island in the summer months, I was intrigued by the lighting in September, the colours in October and the sky changing in the winter months. I was also excited by the fruits growing in the these months that I had never seen in the summer and olive picking in October.”
Ena’s Terrace
As to how the exhibition came about, Arati said, “The exhibition came about simply by contacting the Embassy, and realising that it would be an ideal venue to exhibit these works and that fellow lovers of Croatia might enjoy my passion of this unique landscape.”
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