The marketer with an MBA and a suprising side-gig

The SideOne Profile: Roshni Wijayasinha

By Phyl Newbeck

A resident of Jericho, Vermont, Phyl Newbeck is a freelance writer for a variety of newspapers and magazines. She is the author of Virginia Hasn’t Always Been for Lovers: Interracial Marriage Bans and the Case of Richard and Mildred Loving.

When Roshni Wijayasinha was a child, she used to hang out near the printer at her parents’ business in the hope that someone would accidentally print something they didn’t need so she could draw on the back of the page. “I went to art school,” she said “but after that I had to decide what I wanted to do as acareer, so I decided to go into business.”

Wijayasinha took a break from art during her undergraduate training and while getting her MBA, but after starting her marketing business, she reconnected with her artistic roots. She credits that business, Prosh Marketing, with helping her establish her artistic career. “I help start-ups and small businesses with their marketing strategy,”she said. “I’ve been able to leverage those skills to commercialize my art better and to get customers.”

INSPIRED BY THE NATURAL WORLD

A resident of downtown Toronto, Wijayasinha said she gets her inspiration from the natural world. “My work is inspired by the energy the natural world provides,” she said. “I like to capture the idea of energy through my art. Some of the pieces use movement and lines to show energy physically.” Most of Wijayasinha’s paintings are large canvases. “They can make the biggest impact,” she said. “You can see the energy a lot stronger.” The Unionville Athletic Club has a private selection of her works and she is able to use that facility for storage for others.

Wijayasinha uses a variety of products including acrylics, UV paint, spray paint and paint markers. She noted that she is known for the UV work because there are very few Canadian artists expressing themselves with that medium. “I like the idea of a painting with multiple levels and looks,” she said. “That’s why I started experimenting with glow-in-the-dark paints. One painting can have multiple looks depending on the light.” Wijayasinha added that viewers don’t need UV light for those paintings. A Philips Hue light bulb is sufficient to change the way her paintings are viewed. “I can be in the living room and switch from seeing a beach at sunrise, to middaysun and then sunset,” she said.

“I help start-ups and small businesses with their marketing strategy,” she said. “I’ve been able to leverage those skills to commercialize my art better and to get customers.”

STREET ART

Wijayasinha is proud of the way Toronto has beenbeautifying its downtown and in conjunction withthose efforts, she has worked on a number ofoutdoor projects, many of which were funded bythe city. Through StreetARToronto, she answered acall for artists and was asked to paint several traffic

boxes. “I don’t have an art education in terms of university,” she said “and a lot of galleries weren’t showing my work, so this was a way to get exposure, show my art, and connect with the community.” Wijayasinha enjoyed the weekend she spent on the street, interacting with adults and children. “I let some of the kids draw a couple of lines,” she said. “It was a community piece and it allowed me to work with other people.”

Another piece of art sponsored by the city was done in collaboration with the David Suzuki Foundation. “The point was to raise awareness about butterflies,” Wijayasinha said. “A whole bunch of artists got together to work on a laneway which we covered with different murals of butterflies.” Yet another community project was one in support of Black Lives Matter that Wijayasinha did with 60 other artists at Graffiti Alley, a three-block section of downtown Toronto. “We were socially distant and wearing spray paint masks,” Wijayasinha said. “My piece is a dark black background with two eyes looking out at the protesting crowd with the crowd visible in the reflection.”

WEARABLES

Wijayasinha has expanded her creativity into a variety of other fields including wearable art. “We’ve printed some of my art on dresses, shoes and other clothing,” she said. “There are a number of different fulfillment companies that will let you print on leggings, which were a big thing during Covid.” Wijayasinha was also commissioned to do some paintings on Plexiglas for a retail store. “We wanted to find a way for people to see inside and still be impacted by the art,” she said. “We wanted a medium that was somewhat transparent and could be moved.” An added advantage is that the paintings could be saved rather than having to wash them off a glass window.

Thanks to her marketing background, Wijayasinha knows how to maximize social media, particularly Instagram, which is where she gets many of her commissions. “People have approached me there for custom pieces, murals and smaller works of art,” she said. Wijayasinha is hoping that after the pandemic, she can also do work with businesses. “I would like to work with companies to lead a team to make a mural together,” she said. “That can’t happen now but hopefully it will happen soon.”

When Wijayasinha first started showing her artwork she entered a live painting competition. “We’d paint in person and the audience would vote on the winner,” she said. “I won the first one I entered and that got me excited about painting in front of people.” Wijayasinha’s paintings usually take three to six weeks to finish but competitive art has to be completed in an hour. “There’s a lot of pressure,” she said. “My hands were shaking.” In addition, Wijayasinha had to change the way she painted. Given the way paint drips, she usually paints on the floor but competition work has to be done on an easel so that it’s visible to the judges. Since then, Wijayasinha has competed in Toronto’s Art Battle and has also done live painting at fundraisers and a wedding. The wedding piece wasn’t a portrait of the bride and groom but something to commemorate the feeling of the day.

Most of Wijayasinha’s paintings are large canvases. “They can make the biggest impact,” she said. “You can see the energy a lot stronger.”

HAPPY ACCIDENTS

When she first returned to art, Wijayasinha did some representational work and some of her pieces still have some representational aspects. “I’m not averse to that,” she said “but my style has changed.It was initially impressionistic and it has evolved from there.” Although her paintings are abstract,Wijayasinha said they are all pre-planned, down to most of the layers. “I have a vision,” she said. “I often get my inspiration when I’m hiking in nature. I’ll sketch the vision out and then go through my closet, get the colours, and try to see what order they’ll be in.” Wijayasinha has even practised arm movements for paintings that require splatter. “Accidents still happen,” she said, “but as Bob Ross said, some are happy accidents and sometimes they make things look better.” Wijayasinha noted that often the hardest part of painting is knowing when to stop.“That’s the biggest challenge,” she said. “I usually take a step back and leave a piece for a week or two.”

Running her own business means Wijayasinha has long hours at work so she often paints late at night when there are no distractions from the outside world. “I like to get into the art mood,” she said. “It’s hard to create when you aren’t in the zone. I might meditate first and then listen to music. I like to be in a different mindset when I paint.”

Although her favourite colours are turquoise and teal, Wijayasinha gravitates to all bright colors, including jewel tones because of their energy. She is currently working on a series that looks at gems and crystals and the energy they produce. Her art has been shown at a number of galleries but her hope is to one day display her work at The Artist Project. “It’s for established and emerging artists,” she said. “It comes with dedicated art buyers who buy for the love of art. A lot of Toronto-based artists have made a name for themselves at that show.”