'The beginning' - painting exhibition at Art Gallery from July 10:

Veranda experiments different methods of art

Jayanthi LIYANAGE

First place winning exhibit in the category ‘Composition’ from Ceylon Society of Arts.

There is no medium of drawing that has not graced the artistry of Veranda Bandaranaike. May it be oil paint on canvas, acrylic on canvas, pastels, pencils, charcoal, colour pencils, pens, pallete knife, water colours, ink or finger, she has tried her hand at all of them and turned out a fairly massive collection of art work.

Her exhibition of art to be inaugurated at 3.30 p.m. on July 10, at the National Art Gallery, is aptly titled 'The Beginning'. Presenting the proficiency she had gained from practical and theoretical knowledge through a large number of paintings and other forms of art, she is at a crossroads.

"I want to get an evaluation from art veterans and the public as to in which direction and medium I can most successfully move forward as an artist," Veranda told Daily News. The exhibition will continue on July 11 and 12, from at 9.30 a.m. to 6.00 p.m.

Veranda is a first year undergraduate of the University of Kelaniya, studying for a degree in Visual Arts and Image Art under the guidance of lecturers Kamal Wimalaweera, Vasana Dulwala and Ravindra Lal.

Second place in the category ‘Wild Life’ from Ceylon Society of Arts.

She is also a member of the Ceylon Society of Arts under the auspices of which she experiments her creative ability in painting, using different methods and media of art.

Veranda says her husband, Maithri Bandaranaike, a trainer in human resources, management and personality development spotted her talent and applied his personal development theories to her progress as a successful artist.

"She has a dream of art. My job is to push her towards her dream," says Maithri who had helped her to enroll for art classes at the Ceylon Society of Arts. For the last one and half years, she has continued to attend these classes, tutored by Pulasthi Ediriweera, Akila Jayalath, Jayantha Tissera and Danny Siriwardena. Her focus has not been limited in this medium and she had forged on in varied forms of composition, portraits, wild life, landscapes and abstract art. Her first initiation into art education began at the First Art Foundation in Kegalle, guided by artists P. Abeyratne and Nilanthi Weerasinghe.

Special Merit award in the category ‘Portraits.’

This year, Veranda won the gold medal in the open category of the art competition 'The Vision of Mahagamasekera', held to commemorate his 80th birth anniversary and his 33rd death anniversary. Three of her paintings on Buddhist themes were exhibited at the BMICH at 'Vesak 2009'.

Last year, She won the Western Province Silver Medal of the 'Ridi Sittam', all island art competition, for her drawing of an elephant using the dot method to bring out the three dimensional view. The contest also won her two other merit awards.

The Ceylon Society of Arts (CSA) chose four of her paintings to be exhibited together with works of veterans. In the same year, she won five awards at the competition held by CAS, becoming the winner of the most number of awards.

A unique achievement was her winning both the first and the second places of the 'composition' category for paintings 'still life' and 'the kitchen of a village home'.

She bagged the second place for her 'tiger' in the 'wild life' category and the third place in the 'line drawing' category for her 'Vatada ge : Polonnaruwa'. She also won a special merit award in the 'portraits' category.

She also won an award in the all island art competition held by the Ministry of Education and Colour Products. Veranda now looks forward to participate in an international art competition and running an art gallery of her own.