Maria Abeyesekere (b. 1970) is an internationally collected portrait and figurative artist working in oil and graphite.

​

Born into a family of artistic lineage, with her grandmother a painter & Sculptor, Abeyesekere was immersed from childhood in a visual culture shaped by ancestral portraiture created by European painters and historical artefacts preserved within her family homes. These early encounters with original painted likenesses informed her enduring engagement with the human figure and its psychological presence.

​

She began drawing at a young age and developed her practice through independent classical discipline. Entirely self-directed, her formation is grounded in sustained observation, structural precision, and a rigorous studio methodology aligned with the traditions of European realism.

​

Abeyesekere’s work is distinguished by compositional restraint, calibrated light, and tonal refinement. Her portraits cultivate permanence rather than spectacle, allowing presence to emerge through proportion and atmosphere.