Artist's prime of life dedicated to painting

By Amal HEWAVISSENTI

The painter who virtually turned the temple of Kelaniya into a centre of Buddhist art and created high standard artistic effect in Buddhist scenes, is to be honoured with an exclusive award this year. The Buddhist Literary Festival of 2012 mounted by "Bhauddha Maha Sammelanaya" will celebrate Soylius Mendis' contribution to Sri Lankan art with a special award - "Soylius Mendis Memorial Award".

It is a pleasure of course to note that Walimuni Soylius Mendis, an international celebrity in painting has been ultimately recognised to be a dominant figure as far as Sri Lankan art is concerned. His unique brush strokes on the walls and ceilings of temples revivified the Buddhist world of art and thereby set a perfect arche-type of temple paintings.

A work of art by Soylius Mendis

He practically immortalised most of scenes in Jataka tales, Buddha's life and recent history on the walls of temple of Ranasgalla, Sumana Kusumaramaya of Naththandiya, temple of Giriulla and most prominent of all, the temple of Kelaniya.

Walimuni Soylius Mendis of Kelani Vihara fame was born in 1897 in the village of Mahawewa of Madampe well noted to be with aesthetic environment and artistically inspiring rural set up. However, he neither followed the footsteps of his father who was a professional in indigenous medicine nor made the most of his education provided by Kiriwaththuduwe Pannasara Thera. Though he acquired sufficient knowledge in indigenous medicine from his father, he shifted his focus to painting both as a pastime and a living. By this time, Memonis de Silva was in-charge of painting and sculpture work at Mavila Temple and Soylius Mendis channelled all his interest and energy to this project.

Wall paintings

Soon, Soylius Mendis excelled his master in the work of painting at the temple and embarked on creating wall paintings for many other temples. He was a bachelor all his life and donated most of his property for the benefit of the blind, the deaf and the dumb. In the latter phase of his life, he spent much of his personal wealth on building a fully fledged school for the physically handicapped children and donated it to "Bauddha Maha Sammelanaya".

At the same time, the great philanthropist donated a vast coconut garden so that the "Bauddha Sammelanaya" could drag down sufficient funds to maintain the school. Moreover, he was generous enough to reserve his personal vehicle and ten acres of paddy fields for the benefit of the blind children of the school. Here, almost fifty years of genuine commitment to the career as a painter at temples sharpened his potential and enabled him to produce his own genre of wall paintings.

He introduced an impressive tradition of wall paintings through his artistic intuition and his journey to the temple of Kelaniya clearly marks his intuitive calibre in arts, study and sacrificial commitment.

Soylius Mendis who commenced his journey of art from the temple of Sumanakusumaramaya of Nattanditya marked its culmination at the temple of Kelaniya was an extremely simple, ordinary man with an extraordinary love for animals. He accumulated a great wealth by painting, but dedicated everything for the physically handicapped children and animals.

His school of painting appears to have been nourished by his close review and analysis of works of art by instinctual artists such as Rabindranath Tagore of Shantinikethan, Nandalal Bose and Sharada Charan Ukil of India.

He drew inspiration from their paintings during his special tour to India arranged by D. R. Wijewardene the founder of Lake House.

During his tour, Soylius Mendis made a thorough survey of frescoes of Ajanta and Ellora which left an indissoluble imprint on his style of painting. The influence of this Indian tour pervades throughout his paintings specially those of the temple of Kelaniya that marks the climax of his artistic potential.

Themes of paintings

Soylius Mendis painted varied themes associated with Buddhist history and Buddha's life in almost nine temples giving primacy to the tastes of sponsoring "dayakas" of respective temples. Among his paintings are those depicting the specific incidents and moments of Buddha's life and touching events extracted from Jathaka tales.

Apart from these paintings, his brush eloquently reproduced important developments in recent Buddhist history. Among the special moments chosen from Buddha's life are the dream of queen Mahamaya, birth of Prince Siddhartha, His marriage, crossing the river Anoma, the great Renunciation, self-mortification under a tree, attaining Buddhahood, the first sermon and so forth. Soylius Mendis' most renowned paintings are "The secret conveying of Tooth Relic by Prince Dantha and Princess Hemamala", "The arrival of Sanghamitta with the Bo sapling," "The arrival of Arhat Mahinda," "Buddhaghosa Thera with books," "Writing of Tripitaka at Aluviharaya" and so on. The themes of his paintings at the temple of Kelaniya have been probably selected by Buddharakkhita Thera and Helena Wijeywardana, the chief sponsor for the Kelaniya paintings.

His life

The landmark in his life occurred at the age of thirty when he was entrusted with the creation of paintings at the temple of Kelaniya by D. C. Wijeywardhana who had perceived the artistic capabilities latent in him. D. C. Wijeywardhana once came to the temple at Veheragodalla and was impressed with the paintings being created by a tall, dark but silent young man who had worn his hair in a konde. Thus, Soylius Mendis was immediately called for the project of creating paintings for the temple of Kelaniya. It is strange to note that the young painter dedicated his prime of life (more or less 18 years) on the scaffoldings in the temple for painting scenes in the interior of Kelani Viharaya.

When the celebrated Indian artist Nandalal Bose visited the Kelani Vihara on his tour to Sri Lanka, he expressed his conviction that the authority of Kelaniya temple had discovered the "right man" for the paintings. Luciano Marenzi, the famous Italian art expert who restored Sigiri Paintings is said to have taken great pleasure in viewing the paintings at the temple of Kelaniya. He immediately visited Soylius Mendis in Mahawewa. He was often seen riding a bicycle with a few dried fish tied at the back of his bicycle. He was a complete vegetarian but the dried fish were for the thirty-five dogs who were brought up by him. Soylius Mendis was a real artist characterised by satisfaction, free life, genuine taste for art, simplicity, generosity and total humanity. Bauddha Maha Sammelanaya under this situation, has done a praiseworthy job in honouring a great artist and celebrating rare talent.