Birder Lester to conduct exhibition

Lester’s paintings are unique in the amount of details he brings out in them

• To be held at the Harold Peiris Gallery at the Lionel Wendt from December 6-8 

Bird watcher and painter Lester Perera will hold an exhibition on his feathered friends titled ‘Brush with Birds’ which is scheduled to be held at the Harold Peiris Gallery at the Lionel Wendt from December 6-8. His exhibits could be viewed between 9am and 6pm on these days. 

Lester is an avid birdwatcher and calls anyone who is engaged in this pastime ‘a birder’. 

He counts 20 years as a birdie and his experiences when channeled into exhibition form promise a journey into the wildness. 

According to Lester he spends hours out on the field before they go into a field sketch. He has travelled far and wide for this purpose with his ‘bird watching trips’ taking him to countries like India, Thailand, Maldives and Taiwan. 

He is also a researcher on birds and claims to have sound recordings of 400 species of feathered creatures. 

A standout feature in his drawings is that they bring to life their natural habitats. 

• According to Lester he spends hours out on the field before they go into a field sketch
• This bird lover and naturalist also put out an ebook titled Helm Field Guides: ‘Birds of the Subcontinent

This bird lover and naturalist also put out an ebook titled Helm Field Guides: ‘Birds of the Subcontinent’. 

The biggest prize has won to date for his the time and effort put into being birdie is contentment, he says. 

Lester, a naturalist from childhood, is a talented artist.  The collision of his twin passions of birding has probably made him the foremost bird painter in Sri Lanka. Lester’s paintings are unique in the amount of detail he puts into depicting both the birds he so loves and the backgrounds that bring to life their natural habitat. His paintings and drawings are based on field sketches that he painstakingly and patiently makes during or just after field observations. An artist strives to achieve self-containment of sorts at a certain point of maturity he says. To him maturing as an artist is an unending rollercoaster a subject of trials and tribulations. “The journey never ends for an artist or a true birder with a passion,” he says.

Not only is he a reputed bird artist, but he is also one of the most experienced professional birders and naturalists in Sri Lanka. His expertise extends beyond Sri Lanka. His incessant search for bird species in the region takes him regularly to various destinations in India’s lesser known wild places.  He has led specialised birding tours In Sri Lanka and India including the Andaman Islands. (RN)