Ballpoint strokes bring to life village scenes
He draws disappearing village scenes and to even hear that such beautiful works can be made with a ballpoint pen that you and I use everyday is amazing. Presidential award winner Mangala Madanayaka holds his 25th solo art exhibition at the JDA Perera art gallery today and tomorrow (August 27 and 28).
While most artists use water colours, oil and crayons, using the ball point pens is something only the brave at heart would undertake.
Educated at Richmond College, Mangala Madanayaka has been painting since his schooldays. In 1987, Mr. Madanayaka joined the police service - and kept drawing throughout his service years. He left the service in 1994, to pursue his passion for art.
Starting out he had only a limited range of coloured pens to work with; blue, black, green and red. He achieved 42 colours by using these four pens alone, with varying amounts of pressure - a time consuming task, working on canvas or paper.
The largest ball point work ever done by Mr. Madanayaka all of five feet tall and three feet wide will be on display at this exhibition. Titled “Sundara Gama” it depicts a village scene from Ceylon 100 years ago and took him one and half months to finish. “It took 14 hours of work per day, and a lot of patience,” states Mr. Madanayake.
The artist's acrylic, water colour and oil paintings will also be on display.