Bandula Harischandra:

Pioneer cartoon story teller

The joy and pleasure of creative art is in discovery, of finding out for yourself what works and what doesn't work. If all art were a matter of following directions, creativity would have no place in it. It is the searching, discovery and finding out what to do with the discovery that make painting a creative process.

That is why artists must be creative people. In fact, Bandula Harischandra discovered some years ago that his natural ability to create picture story illustrations and book cover designs was his forte.

Bandula Harischandra was born on May 24, 1940 in Keselwatta, Panadura. He received his early education at Sri Jana Dharmaduta Vidyalaya, Keselwatta. Bandula had a hard life from his childhood days.

At the age of nine, he lost his father, and his mother maintained the household with her earnings. One day in his classroom he drew the portrait of his school manager. This caught the eye of his class teacher and she immediately took him to the principal, who was highly impressed by the drawing.

Bandula Harischandra

He introduced Bandula to H.B.P. Jayawardene an eminent art teacher who had a reputation as a painter and a sculptor as well. Under, the tutelage of Jayawardene he studied drawing, painting, pottery painting, fabric painting and sculpture. Later he followed a two-year course in painting at the Sri Lanka Jathika Kalayathanaya and obtained a Diploma in Art.

In 1959 he joined the Panadura Lalitha Kalayathanaya and served as an art teacher for 17 years. He joined Lake House group of newspapers in 1962 and did a series of picture stories for Dinamina, Silumina, Navayugaya and Sathuta which became very popular among readers.

He began with picture stories dealing with manifold activities of the people. There were bullfights, bandits, courtships, seduction historic events and Jathaka stories in his cartoon stories.

Bandula was a realist with a lot of imagination. His art is so alive and was flawless. Some of the picture stories that became very poplar were 'Sinhabahu', 'Unmada Chitra', Nala Damayanthi, Sakunthala', and 'Sinbad the Sailor'.

Bandula became the first artist to do picture stories in colour. He has also worked in many reputed firms as an artist and has done illustrations for more than 100 books.

Bandula was also the youngest Sri Lankan artist who participated in the arts competition which was held in Russia in 1962. He was also a reputed stamp designer. One of his finest works was the series of paintings done in the shrine room of the Colombo Port.

Having proved his mastery of the genre in painting and book illustrations and his ability to arouse the enthusiasm of the public with his picture stories, Bandula now turned his hand to another branch of art writing.

He has contributed many articles to various newspapers and published a book on art called 'Deepa.' He has also served as the chief artist and manager for Camillus Publications. Dompege Bandula Harischandra got married to Kusum Mangalika in 1980 and they are blessed with a daughter named Sumudu Kalpani. Apart from his commercial work he is engaged in writing two novels.