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| Sunday, 27 June 2004 |
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Eloquent strokes By Kaminie Jayanthi Liyanage Praise this budding artist received from his teacher at the enterprising age of montessori was somewhat startling. "Excellent," reported the teacher. "Unfornately, he doesn't draw on paper!"
Now, more than 20 years later, after he abandoned his adolescent rovings in figure art and portraiture, on the presumption that 'painting had no future', Jayantha came back with "a vengeance" to display a new collection of his art. Titled "Expression 2", the exhibition scheduled to end today (27) ran for three days, beginning from June 25, at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery. The launching of the book of poetry, titled "Expressions in Verse" and penned by Fr. Anton Weerasinghe complemented the show.
But you can recognise my characters when you look at my paintings, for they are people I have seen and met sometimes in my life." His deftness for grasping existing reality is seen in the clearly etched and meticulously detailed characteristics of Jayantha's painted figures. But that does not speak less for his imagination, for Jayantha claims to have visualised and painted nude figures even when he was in the relatively "inncocent and uninitiated" age of below ten years. Yet, after he left his alma mater, St. Peter's College, Colombo, he was to meander for several years doing stints in commercial art before he finally embarked on establishing his own advertising agency, named Impetus Ltd.
"I tried and found that I have not lost the touch with figure art - in fact, I had improved tremendously." The result being his re-apperance last year in the art circles, with his first exhibition of "Expressions". Last December, Jayantha did even better, when he was commissioned by the Sri Lanka Tea Board to paint a landscape depicting a tea estate. Since then, he has also dabbled at scenery and affirms that he is a firm believer in realism. Jayantha speaks regrettably of a scholarship he had been offered by Gate Mudliyar Amarasekera when he won the first, second and fourth places in an All-Island Art Competition in which the Gate Mudliyar had judged. "Though I did not accept it at the time, I believe that art is not an inborn thing but that all an artist needs is confidence to paint. For me, art is a meditation which makes me forget all the worries and cares of the world and brings me peace of mind!" Insights he gains through this meditation could be further witnessed in his impending plans to send a collection of paintings for display to overseas audiences. |
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Jayantha Silva painted everywhere - on walls, on the floor, in every
vacant space he could get hold of - except on paper. Call it an
idiosyncracy - or a peculiarity - whatever it is, this trait alone is
sufficient to hint at the singularity of his character as an artist.
"My asset is my photographic memory," is how Jayantha
describes his mental aptitude to capture the vital nuances of the subjects
of his portraits. "My figures are not drawn by keeping a model at
hand but out of my subconcious.
Creative art was forgotten and pushed to the backyard, for art done for
bread and butter. "But, three years ago, something nagged me that I
must try my hand again at my old art of portraits and figures," says
Jayantha.
