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Something different
Young artist Manoj Liyanage believes in revealing inner emotions
By Marisa de Silva

Two of the young artists’s paintings (far left) and (above). Pix by Ishara Kodikara

Having chosen to develop his own unique style instead of following traditional methods, young artist Manoj Liyanage now makes a living off his passion.
A bright student of Ananda College, Colombo, Manoj credits his first art master at school, Lionel Ranaweera (now retired) with inspiring his choice of career, by letting him develop his own style. In early years, he won many medals, prizes and certificates at all-island and international art competitions including the Olympic Art Festival, '88, in South Korea, where he bagged a gold, the Nippon International Art Exhibition, Japan, where he won many medals over the years, and the Shankar Art Exhibition, India, where he won a merit certificate.

Back at home he won second place in a stamp designing competition organised by the Ministry of Education, under the theme education and development, symbolized by a lamp and an ear of wheat respectively. He also won many district and provincial competitions through his Sunday school and won 1st place at a wall painting competition organised by the Lions Club. For his bad luck though, they broke down that wall shortly after it was painted over a religious controversy.

He's also very thankful to Sahanaya for giving him the opportunity to exhibit his paintings at the art exhibition "The Healing Arts" 2000, organized by the friends of Sahanaya, at the British Council. His second exhibition, 'Shades of Emotion', 2002, held at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery, also organised by Sahanaya, enabled him to set up his paintings side by side with well-known names like Thilake Abeysingha, Niloo Gunasekera, Richard Gabriel and the Ven. A. Wimalasara Thera. "This exposure gave me a lot of confidence and pride, especially since most of my paintings were sold," he said smilingly.

Manoj tries to narrate a story through each of his paintings. "I prefer to have some sort of idea or story in mind, before I start painting," he added thoughtfully. For instance, my picture 'The next pipe and the neglected son', depicts a man living within a concrete pipe at a construction site and an engineer's foot on it, symbolizing that it's next in line to be lifted and carried off to its appropriate place ignorant of the man within. Through that picture, Manoj attempts to portray the forgotten people in our society and how life passes them by.

Another picture speaks of the good and the bad inherent in every man and how nobody can be categorised as all good or all bad. He likes people-related paintings, especially those depicting inner feelings and emotions. Manoj now runs an outdoor advertising company 'Color Pad', where he undertakes orders for all out door advertising work, (hoardings, banners, name boards), interior decorating, landscaping and paintings of course.

It makes his day when he succeeds in satisfying his customers. "Although we go to big names and companies for this type of work, it lasts only around six months at most, but, your work has now lasted over four years," commented one of his loyal customers. Always looking towards improve and update his work, Manoj is ever enthusiastic. "I always try to do something that nobody else does. That's what makes my work different," he says.

Kala Korner by Dee Cee
'A simple journalist's effort'
'Elegant, clear and concise' is how Indian High Commissioner Nirupam Sen described C. A. (Charlie) Gunawardena's 'The Encyclopedia of Sri Lanka' at the launch held a few days back. He called the book "an outstanding piece of work", and commended the author for the 'remarkable range' of subjects he had handled in the 322 page publication.

The High Commissioner's off the cuff speech was most interesting. He told the audience that Gunawardena's work was balanced and objective unlike most other conventional encyclopedias which were mostly ideological and rather biased.It was a full house at Galle Face Hotel's Palm Lounge where Charlie's relations, friends and well-wishers turned out in numbers for the occasion.

The proceedings were extremely lively with Chairman Bradman Weerakoon making the initial remarks about the author (his brother-in-law) and the book. He had pushed Charlie to write the book, which he termed "a brilliant start". It is the first of its kind in English though the government sponsored encyclopedia in Sinhala has been going on for many years and is still not complete. It is intended for the general reader and would be ideal for children as a ready reference.

To publisher S. K. Ghani who had flown from New Delhi for the launch arranged by local distributor Sarasavi Bookshop, authors are ambassadors. He was impressed with the manuscript and decided to go ahead. He referred to other Sterling Publishers releases by Sri Lankan writers, which included Manel Ratnatunga's 'Folk Tales of Sri Lanka', 'Best Loved Folk Tales of Sri Lanka' and 'Step by Step Sri Lankan Cookery'.

Author Charlie Gunawardena called his effort the work of "a simple journalist" though encyclopoedias are generally the work of academics and experts. Tracing his journalistic career (he joined the Daily News as a junior reporter in 1948 when the distinguished Herbert Hulugalle was editor), he reminisced how he was involved in handling news, leader writing and feature work.

As an information officer in the Foreign Service in the 1960s (he served in Sri Lankan missions in London and New Delhi for long stints) he found reference material on the country inadequate. He had to look for information whenever someone wanted to know about Sri Lanka. He started doing the book after his retirement from the Commonwealth Secretariat where he was Director of Information and it took him about five years to complete.

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