Creative carving

Bandula Peiris

'Udu Gan Bala', an exhibition of sculptures and metal embossing works by Bandula Peiris will be held at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery on February 9 and 10. The opening ceremony of the event will be held on February 8 at 5 pm. The event is organized to mark Peiris' 25 years in the art.

Peiris hails from Koralawella. He was educated at Sri Saddharmodaya Buddhist school and Sri Rajasinghe Maha Vidyalaya, Egodauyana. He received his vocational education at Junior Technical College, Ratmalana and trained as a painter and sculptor at the Government College of Arts and Crafts at Horton Place.

Peiris started off his teaching career as an assistant teacher in art at Vijayabe Maha Vidyalaya, Hungama. Later he worked as an instructor in metal embossing works at the Institute of fine Arts (Heywood) which is affiliated to the Kelaniya University.

He was a graphics and animation artist at the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation and underwent advanced training in animation at the S F B Institute in Berlin.

His first solo exhibition of sculpture and metal embossing works was held at the British Council in 1988. Later he took up the post of Course Director in Computer Graphics and Animation at the Sri Lanka Television Training Institute from 1991 to 2010. Meantime he held his second solo exhibition in which he introduced computer graphics to the local public. He followed a training course on Computer Animation at the AIBD Institute in Kwalalampur, Malaysia, in 1995.

He had designed book covers, jacket covers, illustrations and line drawings for various publications from the later 1970s to 2005. He was the artist behind the bas-relief panel depicting the development of communication in Sri Lanka displayed at the lobby of the studio No 3 at SLRC in 1986.

His other notable work include the state of Ven Thotagamuve Sri Rahula erected at the Thelwatta Rajamaha Viharaya in 1991 and the sculptured busts of 18 Diyawadena Nilames which are now displayed at the Dalada Maligawa museum in Kandy.

- RJ