G.S. Fernando:
Political wit and wisdom through cartoons
By Wasantha Siriwardena

"I wish I was born as a bull!", the late Prime Minister Sir John
Kotalawela whispered during a tour at a livestock farm in Polgolla. He
passed these remarks after seeing how the pretty women at the farm were
treating the cows. Next day, a cartoon appeared in the 'Lankadeepa'
newspaper, depicting Sir John as a bull being bathed by a group of
pretty women.
After seeing the cartoon, the Prime Minister called the Lankadeepa
Editor, D.B. Dhanapala and demanded that the cartoonist see him next
morning at his residence in Kandawela. When the slim and frail looking
cartoonist appeared at the PM's residence, Sir John came down the
staircase with a newspaper in his left hand. He asked, raising his right
hand, "You drew this cartoon?"

G.S. Fernando |

Water colour painting of G.S. Fernando |
Expecting a nasty blow from this tough man who was a reputed fighter,
he replied "Yes sir" with a shaking voice. Surprisingly, Sir John put
his hand around him and said "Umba thamai miniha!" (You are the man!).
Both of them had a good laugh and he pulled the cartoonist by hand and
invited him to the breakfast table to have some egg-hoppers. It was G.S.
Fernando, one of the pioneer cartoonists in Sri Lanka who had this rare
"confrontation" with a Prime Minister.
Admire
During the refreshments GSF sketched a quick portrait of the PM and
was rewarded for that. The PM also requested GSF to send all his
original cartoons, after using them for his collection. The Prime
Minister encouraged him to do more and more cartoons of him saying "Thawa
andapan!" (draw more).
Gamvasie Senerath Fernando or GS Fernando - was born on February 2,
1904 in Suddhagoda in Bentara. At the age of 15 his father brought him
to Colombo to study Ayurvedic medicine. While studying medicine from a
well-known Ayurvedic physician, he attended evening classes at Vidyodaya
Pirivena, Maligakanda to study Pali and Sanskrit. On his way to
Maligakanda he used to stop at the Tower Hall theatre, Maradana to
admire the works of reputed Sri Lankan artist Richard Henricus, whose
murals contained both Christian and Buddhist contexts and curtain
paintings.
Later, he became friends with Richard Henricus and learnt the basics
of drawing and painting. Henricus recognized his skills and sent him to
M. Sarlis, a famous commercial artist, who had an art studio in Colombo.
GSF abandoned his studies and joined the art studio. He excelled as a
commercial artist and was soon recognized in the field. He designed
greeting cards, posters and artworks for advertisements. He produced
book covers for a number of best sellers written by reputed authors and
poets in Sri Lanka, namely Martin Wickremasinghe, W.A. Silva, Piyadasa
Sirisena, Hemapala Munidasa, G.B. Senanayake and U.A.S. Perera.
He drew his first political cartoon in 'Swadesha Mithraya' newspaper
in 1931 criticizing the Donoughmore Commission report.
Translation
GSF joined the Times Group of Newspapers as a commercial artist in
1933. He met Aubrey Collette, the political cartoonist of the 'Times'.
GSF was given the task of doing the Sinhalese translation of Collette's
cartoons for 'Lankadeepa'. But later on GSF started doing his own
cartoons. When Collette left for 'The Observer' GSF became the chief
cartoonist in the Times group. Apart from the daily cartoon, he provided
illustrations to the articles published in the newspapers. He also did a
picture strip story called 'Neela' which appeared in the Sunday 'Lankadeepa',
which became the first picture story published in Sri Lankan newspapers.
G.S. Fernando was also one of the best landscape water-colour
painters Sri Lanka has ever produced. He loved painting landscapes and
women.
In an interview with 'Kalpana' magazine in 1982, GSF expressed his
views on Sri Lankan political cartoons at that time. "At the start we
expressed our views with unfinished drawings. But Collette changed the
style. Now it has developed in to a very powerful medium. But I feel the
ideas are limited. You can't blame the cartoonists for that. There are
barriers imposed by the politicians making the task tough. As a
political cartoonist, my aim was to show and highlight the mistakes done
by the government politicians with a little humour. But it became very
difficult when the governments started controlling newspapers."
Reactions
"I have received all kinds of reactions from various political
figures. Some of the leading politicians who loved my cartoons were Sir
John Kotalawela, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, D.S.Senanayake, Dudley
Senanayake, Dr. N.M. Perera and Philip Gunawardena."
His works were exhibited in major cities including London, Paris,
Moscow and New Delhi. As a commercial artist he won many awards and
achieved many 'firsts' in the print media history of Sri Lanka.
His signature with his initials 'GSF' became a brand on any form of
art, adding value to book covers, cartoons, water-color paintings, or
posters etc. He died in 1990 at the age of 86 ending the 'GSF era' of
art in Sri Lanka.
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