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Possibly Sybil Wettasinghe is better known and better recognised in countries outside Sri Lanka. Her work over the past five decades has been highly appreciated in many countries. Her knowledge as a book illustrator has been tapped by many an international organization. Her children's stories continue to be translated into many languages. She has been honoured at several international fora. She is requested to serve on international panels to select the best in children's art.

While she continues to be a much sought after artist, 'Friends of Sybil', comprising a few art lovers, are planning to celebrate the 50th anniversary of her first children's story, Kuda Hora. It will be a felicitation to Sybil who has been writing for well over half a century.

A three-day festival will be held at the National Art Gallery from July 20, with an exhibition of her books and paintings being the highlight. Workshops for children will be conducted by Sybil and a seminar on her work held on the final day. Godage Publishers are busy getting all Sybil's books printed for the occasion.

Getting back to Kuda Hora, though she wrote the story in 1952, it was published three years later and was an instant hit. Not only children but also parents raved over its story and the beautiful illustrations.

Kuda Hora has had an unforgettable journey. Many years after its publication, it was translated into Japanese and won its first award at the Bologna Book Fair. It is being used in at least 13 countries today including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the United States, China, Korea and South Africa – a unique achievement for a book written in Sinhala. In 1986, Kuda Hora won the Best Children's Foreign Book Award in Japan when that country introduced such an award for the first time. The following year, the children of Japan chose Kuda Hora as the most popular story in a competition organized by the Library Association there.

Sybil's has had an illustrious artistic career. She has spent most of her time with newspapers. Starting with the Lankadeepa, she moved to Lake House in the early 1950’s to start the children's page in the Sinhala evening daily, Janatha. She soon made a name for herself as an artist when she was picked to do illustrations for the children's pages in all the Lake House newspapers. Her horizons expanded when she started writing and illustrating children's books. She developed a distinctive style which was unique at the time.

Being bilingual, Sybil was able to reach children with a preference for reading in English. Her book Hoity the Fox won two awards in Japan, one from the Ministry of Education and the other from the Ministry of Culture, while Strange Visitors to the Cat Country won a French award.

In Sri Lanka, Meti Gedara Lamai won the State Literary Award for Juvenile Books in 1992. Its English version, Crystal and Clay, was published later. Her autobiographical novel, The Child in Me, was the winner of the prestigious Gratiaen Prize in 1995. Veniyang Kalu is its Sinhala version written most imaginatively tracing her life back to her childhood days in Gintota, on the southern coast.

Sybil was among 60 of the world's best book illustrators in a survey conducted by book clubs in Japan. She was the only one from Asia – a rare honour indeed.

Apart from her own books, she illustrates writings by others and continues to be in great demand. Her illustrations in the Bible for Children won an award in Czechoslovakia.

In a world of mass production, where everything seems alike, Chloe de Soysa’s feeling is for the texture, the colour and the shape of natural things. Leaves, bark, moss and trees are the inspiration for her work. Nature for her is a living, feeling thing, of great power and mystery, it cannot be predicted and it cannot be controlled.

It was this awful power which was revealed in the tsunami, where the waves destroyed everything, turning the whole world upside down. In Chloe’s tsunami series the onlooker is engulfed by swirling, churning water. Like a swimmer caught by a massive wave, he is picked up and thrown round and round, spinning in a whirl of water. A deluge of blue and white, touched by grey, it evokes a world which has been almost totally washed away.

Yet even out of this horror and chaos, there was a ray of hope, a crack through which the light streamed in. The receding waters saw an outpouring of generosity and compassion, a tide of selflessness which filled the vacuum which the waves had left behind.

The same colours are used with very different effect to recreate the landscape of Alaska. Blue and white, once so dull, so hopeless and so grim, now appear sharp and vivid as they capture the brilliant light of the Arctic. The ice takes on a bluish shade as the light plays on the cracks in the glaciers. Jagged shapes of clashing rocks float before us, cracking as they move against the ice.

Different though their subjects are, the other paintings too are bound together by this common thread. Some deal with other natural cracks, with caves and caverns in the earth, others deal with the cracks in our lives made by man. Several paintings tell the story of the cracks which have appeared following the construction of a giant high rise complex in her neighbourhood. “Like the tsunami, breaking every law of the environment, even the best of builders are oblivious to the destruction that they can cause.” The gaping cracks and fissures in these works are a reflection of the chaos and upheaval which have opened up in the life of Chloe and her neighbours. As with all her other works, I am sure that we would like to hope that here too, there will be a light at the end of the tunnel.

It was an exhibition with a difference and a delight not only to any classic car enthusiast but also for any lover of beauty.

‘Classical Delights’, an art exhibition of exotic cars by Amila Perera held at the Lionel Wendt Art Centre from July 7 to 9 offered visitors a chance to view over 50 vintage and classical cars that date back to the period between 1886 and 1967.

Remarkably, Amila knows the story behind each of the cars that he has featured using line drawings (black and blue), giving great attention to detail such as lights, tyres, suspension systems, etc. The 1886 Benz for example is the world’s first motorised single cylinder car. This has been depicted with a fly-wheel and the exact number of spokes in the proper order. “Most of those parts are hidden in today’s cars,” the artist says.

Amila went on to discuss other intriguing details. The Ruxton Model C (1929) was apparently one of the pioneer front-wheel cars manufactured by a company that is now bankrupt. Only the affluent could afford those cars. However, “it was the Citroen that made the front wheel drive a success,” he adds.

One of the most fascinating cars according to him is the German Daimler Benz 28/60 of 1912. “All of them vanished during the war except for three,” the artist informs. As for the rare Mitchell 1906 that is currently in the US Automobile Museum, the artist has made an amazing illustration showing its starter arm and cushions.

Speaking to the self-taught artist, it is evident that he is fascinated by cars, a passion that began when he was about three. “Every time I saw an unfamiliar car, I would memorise the design and go back home and reproduce on paper,” he recalls. Gradually, his interest in the subject grew, leading him to study the automobile history eras that are based on major design and technology shifts.

In 2005, Amila who is an engineer at Sri Lanka Telecom, had been sent for two months of training to Japan. While he was there he was fortunate to have visited the Toyota Museum where he got to see up-close a large selection of vintage cars. Among them was former US President Roosevelt’s car, a replica of the world’s first car (1886 Benz) and the Mitsubishi’s Model A which incidentally was Japan’s first car made for the royal family.

A product of Royal College, he is also a pianist, conversant in both pop and classical music. He hopes to take his exhibition to India and Japan in the near future.

The exhibition was presented by the Classic Car Club of Ceylon that started in 1991 and currently has 340 members, each of whom owns a classic car.

It was open day at the Academy of Design in Colombo 3 recently, for the public to walk in and get to know, not only about design, but also about design education and see the students at work.

The academy was established to offer undergraduate education in design and train young school leavers in this creative field. It offers Sri Lankan students a local route to an international degree, with the programmes combining contemporary approaches to design, adapted to the cultures of the region.

While nurturing creativity and innovation, and developing technical skills, the Academy of Design offers students the opportunity to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design, Fashion Design or Interior Design.