What you seek is seeking you-Rumi

I crossed from one mountain to another mountain, from rain forest to evergreen forest, from one form of solitude to another. At the elevation of 3000 ft as I took my first step on the ground where rain had just danced & the clouds were slowly clearing up, I was welcomed to Artist Cottage. Vipula Perera, a textile engineer by profession & drawing has always been his hobby since he was a kid. After spending years in Japan & USA, he returned to Sri Lanka to spend time in his home country after retirement. Also got influenced by the art form both in Japan & USA, Vipula continued his passion towards drawing & now has developed his niche in line drawings.

While looking for a place to build a studio & practice his drawings somewhere close to nature, he found this beautiful piece of land in Beragala Mountains, Haputale. Landscape architecture has also been his hobby where he has created some brilliant places in Sri Lanka & California. This place seemed like an ideal place to build a studio & a getaway retreat; he also came up with an idea to invite artists from all across the world to work or even conduct workshops that would benefit each other as artists. That’s how the two beautiful cottages came up with the view of mountains & the weather here stays cold all through the year 🙂

It rained most of the days that I stayed here, I tried to be indoors which is unlikely me but the cottages & the view from those French windows were just more than beautiful to just let them go. The view from the cottage kept kindling me to continue with drawing that I had stopped long ago, cannot even remember when! Oh yes, I did start drawing again.

Yet another place that served delicious Srilankan food cooked by a local family entangled me to stay even more in one place; eat & stare at the mountains.

One of the days, when the clouds cleared up I decided to walk up the hill & ended up near a Tamil school. We call it Champa & the English name is Plumeria, the place was filled with the fragrance of this flower, on the ground, on the tree & decorated everywhere. This definitely looked like a kid’s art; they were peeping from their classroom & finally came out to talk to me. I conversed with them in Tamil & also with their teacher and then they posed for a picture. I tried to visit those kids until I was there, shared some giggles, spoke to their parents & also shared some laughter with their grandparents.

Those mountains, that cloud, this tree, hey butterfly, hello bird, they were all to myself; this is how I would converse with them. After some extensive traveling & socializing, I had to rejuvenate myself being in solitude around these beautiful creatures. Chugging up in the blanket, sometimes I would draw, read & write, sometimes sit still & let my brain fight with all the thoughts that’s been bothering me, if I don’t find a solution then I would start staring at the window on how clouds come together to let the rain dance, feeling the soft sway of breeze through my hair, looking at few birds screech while flying through the rain, and when the rain stops dancing the clouds slowly clear up to show how beautiful the sky is.

Do read about Things to do in Haputale

What if all these beautiful creatures are having a conversation to create this beautiful pattern, What if the mountains & trees send these clouds to pass messages on to the flip side, What if the rain & beautiful sky were just to celebrate once the messages have been reached 🙂

*I was hosted by Artist Cottage, would you like to have a conversation with nature too? Then pop in soon!

Blooming…

Wild Flower