Senaka Senanayake, Blue Horses (1993): The Friday Find

1 - 7 May 2026
Senaka Senanayake, Blue Horses (1993), The Friday Find

“Many times, people walk by a piece of art and don’t respond…

I want my paintings to talk.

Everyone from a street sweeper to a university professor should be able to relate to my art.”

 

Senaka Senanayake

  • This week we have a 1990s canvas by Senaka Senanayake. By the ‘90s Senaka had developed his mature style, characterised...
    Exhibition adverts and press cuttings. Courtesy of the Artist

    This week we have a 1990s canvas by Senaka Senanayake.  By the ‘90s Senaka had developed his mature style, characterised by the use of bold, vivid colours and subjects including animals, flora and fauna.

     

    As has been mentioned here before, Senaka started exhibiting in the late 1950s, and by 1969 had held 60 one-man exhibitions. He has since gone on to have held a great many more.

  • Senaka Senanayake, Running Horses, 1993

    Senaka Senanayake

    Running Horses, 1993

    "Distilled from the natural world it is the essence of the forests and its creatures that make Senaka’s painterly narrative so mystical. He is familiar with the flora and fauna and flight of the fireflies that cast their solitary trail of light in the dark wilderness. His nightscape with the black lotus bear testimony to those times.

     

    ‘The palette usually so vivid and radiant is bleached of colour then and is mysteriously dark. Senanayake is engaged with an idyllic world that is slowly disappearing. His art captures the contours of a dream, the recurring theme he seems to convey time and again is that there is still hope and cause for optimism no matter how trying the circumstances."

     

    Ina Puri, Beyond the Rainforests

    Enquire: Running Horses
  • Senaka Senanayake, Blue Horses, 1993

    Senaka Senanayake

    Blue Horses, 1993

    This painting was bought by a French collector from an exhibition of his work at The Oriental Hotel in Singapore in 1993.  It is in good, original condition and is available to view at the gallery.

     

    Fact Sheet:

    Senaka Senanayake

    The Blue Horses, 1993

    Signed and dated lower left

    Oil on canvas

    47 x 54 cm (18 1/2 x 21 1/4 in)

     

    Provenance

    The Artist;
    Private French Collection, acquired in Singapore circa 1993

    Exhibitions

    Singapore, The Oriental, 1993

    Enquire: Blue Horses