Jayantha Kannangara:

Capturing viewers with pen and ink

Jayantha Kannangara who hails from Bandaragama in the District of Kalutara is a talented painter.

Among the artists of today Jayantha is one of the most versatile. The outstanding quality he has achieved in line drawings is remarkable pen and ink work.

He has proved his mastery and ability to arouse enthusiasm among the public with pen and ink.

The delicate lines produced by a fine pen nib has produced intricately detailed work. Some of the pen and ink work titled 'Elephants', 'Rabukkana Railway station", 'Entrance to the Galle Fort', the 'Eye Hospital building in 1893 and the Kalutara Nuga tree, are masterful with bold eye-catching compositions. The proudest moment in his art career was the occasion when the Government bought the line drawing work titled 'Construction of the 'Nelun Pokuna' theatre hall, and which now hangs on the walls of the theatre.

Jayantha was born on November 14, 1961 in of Bandaragama.

Jayantha Kannangara

Princess Diana

He had his education up to the Advanced Level at the Wevita Maithri Maha Vidyalaya. Jayantha has not acquired any special training in the field of art but trained under reputed artists such as Gunasiri Colombage and Thalangama Jayasinghe on painting and commercial work.

Jayantha did cartoons and story illustrations for many newspapers. In 1978 he joined the Dawasa group of newspapers and was the chief artist at the Sri magazine. His illustrations were also used in the Madura newspaper (a tabloid produced by Thalangama Jayasinghe for picture stories). He also worked in reputed advertising agencies in Colombo as a visual artist and chief artist. For a brief period in 2008 he was the art instructor at the Sithumina Lalitha Kalayathanaya, Peradeniya where George Keyt's niece was an art student under him.

Apart from painting, landscaping and sculpture were two main activities that he enjoyed. As a painter, he merely painted life-like scenes in oil, acrylic and water colours. He was fortunate to undergo training under the prominent water colour artist, Kalasuri G.S. Fernando and gained experience to create paintings capturing the essence of nature.

One of the paintings done in water colour is titled 'Evening shadows.' In the painting Jayantha has applied bright greens built up with transparent glazes which give the effect of the sun shining through the leaves. The artist accentuates the delicate trace of dark branches indicating the fine twigs on the tree. At the same time, the length of the branches vary, gradually becoming longer and come out in a staggered form.

Portrait painting is one of his favourites. His portraits retained his love for natural simplicity. They are, in a true sense, living pictures.

His portraits included well-known personalities of the country, such as the eminent music director Rohana Weerasinghe, the late President R Premadasa, and occasional glimpses of nobility such as, Princess Diana.

Jayantha exhibited his work in many capitals of the world bringing credit to Sri Lanka, for example, in England, Italy and China.

He has also done temple murals and takes credit for painting the Munamaldeniya Vihara, Nugavela Vihara, Kandy and Polwatte temple, Kollupitiya.Jayantha has now turned his hand to another branch of art, writing. He has published books on art, with details on drawing animals.

At present he teaches art to students at the Ceylon Society of Art, Colombo.