A new language in abstract art

by Gwen Herat

Chandana Ranaweera does it in his own inimitable way turning the ballpoint into some sort of art and come off uniquely different. All he needs is a piece of art paper and a ballpoint; no brush, no palatte, no paint and nothing at all. On first eye contact it may be difficult to comprehend as to what his art is all about but as one keep gazing, there is depth behind those harsh line some are irregular and some in blank formation.

This is some kind of art for the Sri Lankans who might take quiet some time to get familiar with. The development of a new abstract art into line drawing he found amazing and plodded on even in the face of non recognition.

Chandana Ranaweera is a determined artist revealing his inner feelings even in the face of stiff competition from other schools of art. I like the way he had taken up this challenge and where it would take him is any one's guess. In his endeavour to be someone special is remarkable in that he has the confidence.

I cannot recall any other artist in the past nor the present who pursued line drawing even as a hobby but Ranaweera's synthesis contrasts between figures and sketches of animals, birds and burgeon as stretches his hand across the art paper to place the impressions that come into his mind. His hand is stable and variable to produce those sketches that some art lovers have come to appreciate.

Geometric forms

This new means of expression turned basic geometric forms into sketches that Ranaweera interacted to evoke his methods.

Is Ranaweera missing out his talents on an art that seems to have no future scope? He is very adamant and say it is not so. The confidence he has on a ballpoint pen makes art critics ponder whether he is on the right track to spread his own particular art the way charcoal drawing caught up.

Ranaweera spent his life in the rural from where he emerged working out a totally different means of expressing his ardour for lines that subsequently became an art.

Inspiration

There was nothing he could have learnt from others for inspiration. No one had any effect on his subject matter nor anything to offer him to further his art. But he had his own technique of producing one-line sketches, decorative lines and flat-on-paper forms of art. He rejects images in his art and works out a different expression that we have to accept and understand. As an artist, I feel sorry for him because he has no colour and light but simply black white combination. Yet, they are varied in composition and take the observer into a completely different world of artistic language. When drawing he tries to forget objects as his pen fly all over the paper and in this different emotional associations, Ranaweera triumphs.

Colour combination

Since his colour combination is only black/white, Ranaweera must endeavour to use different coloured art paper upon which to draw so that B/W sketches will stand out with prominance in a coloured background and thereby, he will have a better public response when the monotony of B/W is removed.

However within all this, I did see a bit of Wassily Kandansky in him who was the first important abstract artist in the last century but he survived to become great as he used bold colour within his lines, bordering abstracts.

Ranaweera has sold many of his sketches to tourists in collections he has displayed at hotels and to art lovers in Sri Lanka and abroad.