A study in Sinhala of the decorative painting tradition — the ornamental work that belongs to everyday ceremonial life rather than to the temple wall or the gallery. G.S. Fernando treats it as an art bound up with folk practice: the painted and decorated structures raised for weddings, the poruwa on which a couple stands, the pirith pavilion built for chanting. These are the settings in which the craft has stayed close to ordinary people, put up for an occasion and taken down after it.
The book looks in particular at the Kandyan period, when the tradition appears to have spread widely. Much of its substance is given over to the body of Sinhala motifs themselves and to the occasions on which particular designs are used — the stock of ornamental forms a decorator draws on, and where each belongs.
It is addressed to two readers: school pupils studying art, who need an account of the tradition set out in order, and working craftspeople in the decorative trade, for whom it serves as a practical guide to the motifs and their application.
The text is written entirely in Sinhala, with no English edition or parallel translation, so reading knowledge of the language is necessary. The publisher is M. D. Gunasena & Co. (Pvt) Ltd of Colombo, a long-established Sri Lankan house publishing in Sinhala and English.
- Author: G.S. Fernando
- Publisher: M. D. Gunasena & Co. (Pvt) Ltd
- Language: Sinhala
- ISBN: 9789552105258
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