Sharing his creations with others was his ultimate joy
Ninel Fernando at the Anil Gamini Jayasuriya exhibition
I met Anil for the first time when I joined Ena De Silva Fabrics in late 1974. Fresh from completing my textile design studies in Mumbai, I returned home to Colombo, still uncertain about how to apply my newfound skills. This was a time of recovery after the JVP insurrection, the industrial sector was in shambles and there were few opportunities for start-ups.
About this time, Auntie Ena invited me to join the company she co-founded in the mid-1960s with Laki Senanayake, Anil, and my maternal Uncle Regi Siriwardena. Strangely, I had never met Anil before, as my family resided in Kandy while he was likely immersed in school and university life.
My earliest memories of Ena de Silva Fabrics involved visiting Regi at No 21, Alfred Place, at the charming colonial house, where Regi, Laki and his wife Rangini, and later, daughter Mintaka lived. It also housed the workshops on the ground floor. The garden was often festooned with vibrant batik fabrics fluttering on the clotheslines, a memory that has remained etched in my mind.
What truly defined Anil was his selflessness. He treated everyone with kindness and respect, regardless of their educational background or social status. He consistently placed others before himself. Therefore, he was the easiest person to work with, and we enjoyed working as a team.
The commissions for the Oberoi Hotel banners had been received shortly before I joined the company, followed by those for the Hotel Anatole in Texas, USA. I was entrusted with organising the workflow and carrying out the dyeing of these large banners, helped by Anil and the team at all times. However, work on the sun and moon banner, the smallest of the trio, had been commenced by Jeremy Marjen, the longstanding dyer/colourist who left the company soon after I joined and was completed later.
Another pursuit Anil enjoyed was writing in beautiful italic script that Regi taught many of us as kids. He was disciplined in his work, and practised his writing diligently, often featuring quotations he wanted to share with others. He posted these beautiful compositions, embellished with drawings to friends and family, and derived pleasure in imagining the recipients’ joy on receiving these beautiful offerings. He hardly ever held on to his paintings or other creations. The act of creation was a driving force and once he finished a drawing or a manuscript, he gave them away to family or friends and moved on. For Anil, creating and sharing his creations with others was the ultimate joy.
I also remember I once gifted him some handmade papers, and in return, he surprised me with many beautiful drawings drawn on these very same papers giving them back to me!
His love for music knew no bounds. He introduced me to the Beatles, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger and other icons of the 1960s anti-war movement. Growing up with classical compositions like Bach and Beethoven, he introduced me to a whole new world of compositions by Bartok and Stravinsky, whom I soon learned to enjoy.
Anil’s drawings had two distinct identities, the Designer and the Artist within him. What he loved most, was drawing to express his feelings, where nature which he loved was his primary source of inspiration.
On seeing his early paintings recently, I found them to be complex and highly decorative with happy explosions of colour and rhythm suggesting spontaneity and working at speed. His drawings for batiks were also highly decorative but had to conform to the limitations of the batik medium and were therefore more studied in their composition. However, what he loved most, later in life was to draw with pen and ink like those on his visits to Weeravila, in the mid-70s displayed at the exhibition. The artist in him was free to capture the essence of the vast, open spaces expressed with just a few lines.
All of us who knew Anil will remember him for his simplicity, generosity of spirit, and amazing creativity nurtured in childhood by Mrs. Cora Abraham who brought out his talents. But most of all, let us remember a kind and genuine human being,
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