Art and Beauty in Coastal Sri Lanka

Its always a pleasure when dear friends travel and bring their memories live and share with you, isnt it?How happy are you to see the images and enjoy them.This was the perfect time for my dear friend Ambika  to travel to SriLanka coz i am head over heels in love with Srilanka :)- with  Geoffrey Bawa :)-

An amazing tour she did with whatever little time she got and has captured the essence of SriLanka in her gorgeous images..

 Ambika creates art wonderfully,she is a blogger and blogs at "My Sunny yellow Window".She also shares DIY'S,Decor ideas and travel stories..

Shall let Ambika speak now...

“Travelling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller” and I couldn’t agree more with Ibn Batuta.

While noting the striking resemblance of Sri Lanka to India, there were some stark differences too - the cleanliness and aesthetics of the general public in Sri Lanka are many notches above.

Four days in the island nation whizzed past and I have just photographs as memoirs. A few among them are special to me, and I wish to share them with the readers of Celebrations Decor. Without further ado, I will let my pictures do justice..

Lotus picking for the boutique hotels

Red and whites swim around to add fragrance  to the decor

nooks of the lovely home stay

Inside the home stay

nooks and corners

lovely corners

charming office of the idle bikes at Unawatuna

at the beach side

outside galle fort

an antique store

shadow play in a Dutch Bungalow converted to a heritage resort

beautiful tiles

light streams in

the old rusted signboards stole the heart

gorgeous windows at the JApanese peace pagoda

painting at the ambalangoda mask factory

portuguese tiles and clock

Batik painting in progess

sculptures in tune with the surroundings

travel photographs framed by a dutch door

sun shining down on the Nooit Gedacht Heritage Hotel

I thank Ambika for accepting the offer to write and share images which she very readily did..Thanks  for the collaboration..Hope to do more in future.

All Photographs  courtesy Ambika Sudhakaran..please ask before reusing them..do not copy nor steal

the spring solitude!

You all are always on my mind..
At home..and these nooks are to get comfortable and day dream..
Inspirations to live tropical as always..the strokes of spring at home and the gentle breeze of summer in Delhi..Imagining of all sultry colours down south and the monsoons..Have a brilliant week ahead.I know i need to be regular atleast with a post once in a week.

spring colours

breathtaking pinks..i could sit the whole day here looking and listening to the same music:)- full day..what say?

home grown herbs add a new dimension to the centre table

in love with reds


Please  do not copy nor steal  images..Images conceived and clicked by Lakshmi Arvind.

Madurai Heritage Club,Madurai

The Madurai Club is an architectural master piece by Architect Geoffry Bawa .The huge restored place stands silently in Madurai in atucked away street .  Heres the story of how it all began...Martin Henry was appointed general manager of Madurai Mills  in 1970. At the time the large thread-making company based in and around Madurai ran two staff clubs: the Madurai Club in the centre of the town was exclusively European , while the Garden Club in the suburb of Kochadai was for Indian staff.Made entirely from materials found within a few kilometres of the site. Bawa rose to the challenge and proposed that the structural columns should be of honey-coloured stone quarried from the local Nagamalai Hill and that stone slabs from an old mill should be used for the floors. Henrys travelled up to Karaikudi where they bought 2 old Chettinad doors, a set of 4 old carved stone columns and a miniature temple cart, all of which were incorporated into the new club. Work finally started on site in January 1973 and the completed building opened in January 1975.Although the design is deceptively simple, it succeeds through the subtlety of its spatial organization, the care with which spatial hierarchies are set up and the connection of exterior, interior and semi-interior spaces through axial views.Restoration of the Madurai Club was fittingly awarded to Bawa’s disciple, Sri Lankan architect and prodigy Vinod Jayasinghe. Maintaining Bawa’s unique style and most of the material he had used, Jayasinghe restored the resort to its former glory.

Some stays are always unprecedented and just like that.A days stay here was also the same way!The town of Madurai and Madurai Meenakshi temple stays close to our minds right from the initial days of marriage.The passenger train which took us to Madurai and together we visited the temple and then took our journey to kodai hills..So madurai is first love and togetherness for us.Any trip to this place can only be celebrated !

illustrations and images from the book courtesy:David Robson

the alley and pillars

this place is a converted lawn

interiors of the lobby 2013

interiors in 1970

the entrance to the office

villas ..

lights antique 

at night

shadows and the granite pillars outside the room

the room

the plunge pool

coolness of the shadows and breeze from the neem tree

one door in the restaurant

restaurant

the antique chettinad door

the lobby area

lotus pools near the entrance

its alleys are  beautiful..

shadows outside the lobby..lotus 

Image and Text Courtesy: Lakshmi Arvind,David Robson,Archnet,Thomas and Hudson
please do not copy images nor save them without permission