{{Short description|Sri Lankan artist and illustrator}} {{Infobox person | name = Dorothy Fernando | birth_name = Dorothy Dias | birth_date = {{Birth date|1907|09|18}} | birth_place = Panadura | death_date = {{Death year and age|1981|1907}} | spouse = {{Marriage |Cyril Fernando ||1955| reason=died}} }}
'''Dorothy Fernando''' ({{nee|'''Dias'''}}; 18 September 1907 – 1981)<ref name="The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)-2007">{{Cite web |date=September 23, 2007 |title=Free-spirited as a wild flower |url=https://www.sundaytimes.lk/070923/Plus/plus00014.html |access-date=2024-03-24 |website=The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) |archive-date=2023-01-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230105111450/https://www.sundaytimes.lk/070923/Plus/plus00014.html |url-status=live }}</ref> was a Sri Lankan painter.
== Early life == Dorothy Dias was born in Panadura.<ref name="The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)-2007" /><ref name="Sunday Observer (Sri Lanka)-2015">{{Cite web |date=18 October 2015 |title=Pioneering work of art and knowledge |url=https://archives.sundayobserver.lk/2015/10/18/spe-the-04.asp |access-date=2024-03-24 |website=Sunday Observer (Sri Lanka) |archive-date=2024-03-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240324102040/https://archives.sundayobserver.lk/2015/10/18/spe-the-04.asp |url-status=live }}</ref> She grew up in Colombo with her conservative parents. She studied at Bishop's College in Colombo and Malvern Girls College in the United Kingdom.<ref name="The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)-2007" /> In her late teens, she pursued her interest in painting and nature in defiance of her father's wishes.<ref name="The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)-2007" /><ref name="The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)">{{Cite web |title=Bringing back the blooms |url=http://www.sundaytimes.lk/140330/plus/bringing-back-the-blooms-90478.html |access-date=2024-03-24 |website=The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) |archive-date=2023-01-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230130021859/https://www.sundaytimes.lk/140330/plus/bringing-back-the-blooms-90478.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
== Career == Fernando became a member of the Ceylon Social Service League, running a sewing school for underprivileged girls for several years.<ref name="The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)-2007" /> She developed her watercolour painting technique while illustrating the country's indigenous orchids for her brother-in-law Ernest Zoysa.<ref name="The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)-2007" /><ref name="The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)" />
Fernando travelled during the 1940s, collecting and painting wildflowers. She eventually published a book titled ''Wildflowers of Ceylon'' in England in 1954.<ref name="Sunday Observer (Sri Lanka)-2015" />
== Personal life == Dias married Cyril Fernando, who became one of Sri Lanka's most prominent physicians.{{when|date=March 2024}} They had four children. Cyril died in 1955.<ref name="The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)-2007" />
Fernando died in 1981 while preparing for her third exhibition.<ref name="The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)-2007" />
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{19th & 20th-century Sri Lankan painting}}
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Fernando, Dorothy}} Category:1907 births Category:1981 deaths Category:20th-century Sri Lankan women Category:People educated at Malvern St James Category:Alumni of Bishop's College, Colombo Category:Sri Lankan women painters Category:20th-century Sri Lankan painters Category:People from Panadura Category:20th-century women painters