Refined skills and creative imagination

Prof. Ashley Halpe reviews the art of Chandana Ranaweera

Chandana Ranaweera has called several of his current series of exhibitions Samadhi Chinthana. One imagines him as seated in Samadhi before his utterly simply materials – a sheet of paper, a pen charged with black ink. An image begins to take shape on the screen of his imagination. He focuses intensely on it. He begins to draw on the paper and our imaginations focus in company with his.

Chandana gives us three categories of work. One is of abstractions from the reality around us – trees, bats in flight, a boat drawn up on the shore, a flute player. All rendered with a scrupulous fineness of line and shade. The shading is achieved by a multitude of fine lines. There are also boldly created shapes. Another category is the depiction of his own imaginings. A third is his adoption of a uniquely distinctive form of collage. He tears shapes from printed newspaper and also takes lengths of discarded ayurvedic prescriptions written on ola leaf and glues them on smallish pieces of drawing paper- approximately 10 inches by 12 or 14 inches and then drawn on the surface: a standing Buddha image, monks in a vihara.... there is an interplay between the mostly vertical lines of the images and the horizontals of the lines of newsprint and the delicate lines of the Sinhala of the prescriptions.

The art of Chandana has earned perceptive and enthusiastic critical commentary from Edwin Ariyadasa, Gwen Herath and the present writer. A substaintial collection of his work can be viewed at his rural home "Mallika Niwasa" in Alawwa. No believe in "Guru Mushtiya," he eagerly and generously passes on his skills and knowledge of art history and artistic understanding to generations of young students at his old school, Rathanalankara Viduhala, Alawwa, where he teaches and where I have had the opportunity of admiring what he is doing when I was able to visit an art show at the school. His students have won recognition and several awards at art competitions.