A charity art exhibition and sale called Hues Of Blossoms will be held at The Lionel Wendt Art Gallery from May 8-10 in aid of the Thalesema patients at the Teaching Hospital in Karapitiya, Galle, featuring mixed work by 12 young artists from the ages of 7 to 14 years.

 Dulani, whose 11 year old daughter Dulanji, from Visakha Vidyalaya is taking part in this exhibition explained that Thalesema patients are transfusion dependent during their entire lives and that the Teaching Hospital in Karapitiya, Galle is not the most established one around.

She said, "While they do get funding, it’s not enough and they need the funds as they’re only just starting to come up, and that’s why we chose that hospital. Thalesema is a children’s disease and the hospital has 40 or so patients."

More than 200 paintings will be on display at Hues Of Blossoms and the parents of these youngsters hope to raise a minimum of Rs. 200,000 to finance medical equipment that the hospital is in dire need of.

Dulanji meanwhile is excited about taking part in the exhibition and according to her mum, she’d gladly give all her belongings to charity if she could. The eager child says she has painted many pictures for the exhibition and hopes that her favourite of the lot, a painting of the sea will be sold.

The Hues Of Blossoms charity exhibition is a first time for some of the youngsters while others like 11 year old Abishek of The British School in Colombo, who has come up with an exceptional painting of a banana among the other 24 paintings he has contributed, says he can paint "any old time," and has been in various art exhibitions in the past and charity events at The British School in Colombo, but the one thing all these kids have in common, is their sheer determination to make a difference in the lives of less fortunate children.

Another common factor these kids share is the fact that they all study art under the guidance of Latifa Ismail who has been teaching art for over 30 years now. Latifa says she teaches all age groups, from kids to adults and it’s the one thing she loves doing. She said, "I try to let their own style and talent shine and not cramp them in their art. My house has been turned into an art centre and it’s my life, it’s what I do."

Latifa has her hands full on any given day, having to sometimes juggle teaching 20 kids at a time but the kids seem to love it as much as she does.

But both children and parents say that Latifa has been the driving force behind their enthusiasm for art, and has been a source of encouragement for as long as they have known her, giving these children the confidence to be themselves and express themselves through their art.

Dulani says that her daughter has improved by leaps and bounds in her art, after training under Latifa who is fondly known as ‘Aunty.’

Kids from different schools, in different age groups and different styles of painting have all come together for one great cause, and that’s helping kids out there who haven’t got as good a break as they have. 

One great example of their compassion is 12-year-old Rezia, a CIS student who has interests that range from drama to synchronised swimming. She’s playing a major role in this art exhibition and she has contributed a great deal of paintings —20 in fact — but art is not her dream career. Instead she hopes to become a speech therapist someday to help kids who have problems with speech.

She says she was inspired to follow this because of her cousin who can’t speak well. She said, "I want to help kids like him when I grow up, because in Sri Lanka you don’t get many people in that field to help out people with speech problems."

Small kids, with big hearts for sure, but while it’s the children’s idea to sell their paintings as a fundraiser for charity, it’s their parents who are hard at work behind the scenes, putting the exhibition together.

But this heart warming gesture isn’t just a one-off thing for seven year old Lahiri from Bishop’s College who has been preparing for this exhibition since June last year and according to her mum Nirmali, she and the rest of the kids and parents want to continue in this fashion.

All life is an artists’ palette. And so it is for Bandula Samarasekera. "Character design is my passion" he says "and I find it extremely fascinating because it allows me to express myself in the way that I want to. I draw inspiration from everything that surrounds me — people on the street, music, architecture, history, mythology etc."

Bandula is a talented specialist who has worked as a visualiser using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator as well as Free Hand and Painter software to create astounding works of art. Some of his pacesetting work has won him recognition from Adobe internationally.

Bandula’s digital illustrations using Adobe software have also won him many awards including the All Island Digital Design Poster Competition for professionals held by the Sri Lanka Institute of Printing in March 2002. His recently launched website www.bcomart.com carries ample proof of his wide and varied styles.

Among these is a portrait of President Mahinda Rajapakse. "I see the President as an inspirational figure," says Bandula. Other aspects of his talents including air brush work, digital illustrations, digital canvas paintings, sculptures and storyboard illustrations are seen in his well ordered website.

"I also specialise in image manipulation, retouching and storyboard illustrations for the advertising industry," says Bandula. He has been involved in the advertising industry for well over two decades. Previously he had been employed as a senior visualiser at JWT (formerly J. Walter Thompson), at LDB Lintas and at Lowe Worldwide Colombo. He is currently based in Dubai as a senior visualiser, Illustrator and finishing artist at Fortune Promoseven.

Having used and promoted Adobe Software throughout his career, Adobe has invited him to attend their Adobe Live 2007 Exhibition in London.

Being the first time a Sri Lankan has been invited it is indeed remarkable and brings prestige and prominence to our country. In his website Bandula, sums up his future plans, "I intend to exploit the boundaries in computer graphics designing and create a new wavelength in graphics".

The Colombo Philharmonic Choir, conducted by Manilal Weerakoon and accompanied by Soundarie David on the piano/organ, will sing Fauré’s Requiem, Mozart’s Te Deum Laudamus and Anton Bruckner’s motet Virga Jesse Floruit at the Ladies College Chapel, Colombo 7, on Sunday, June17.

This programme is being repeated at the request of those who were unable to attend the first performance of this programme. The soloists for this programme will be Minoli Goonewardene (Soprano) and Sanjeev Niles (Baritone)

Entrance will be by programme which could be obtained at the Chapel door.

Though this review maybe a tad too late, the overall performance and production calls for an encore. Hence it would be appropriate to pay kudos to a band of ballet students who put on a sterling performance in the not too distant past.

The Sun ‘shone’ within the confines of the Lionel Wendt Auditorium when Shiyani Saranapala, a student of Kanthi Ranchigoda performed a solo dance with a generous lacing of the salsa along with many other performances by the students of Kanthi when they presented Flashback — which brought back nostalgic memories of dances performed over the years, from 1989 to 2004.

The piece de resistance was the performance depicting the Sun, the last item of Act 1. Appropriately costumed in orange, the ‘Sun’ danced on stage to the theme song from The Man From La Mancha. Supple, lithe, graceful and not missing a beat, the dancer portrayed the Sun moving across, somewhere between the earth and the sky, not just shining down on the world but smiling with the world as well.

That such a performance is possible in Sri Lanka is somewhat unbelievable. Shiyani Saranapala should continue to dance and be tutored to be a professional — and undoubtedly she would make it!

The performance of Michelle Joseph is also worthy of mention. She is yet another dancer who was outstanding with her solo item Wind. She was gracefully expressive and gave one the impression that she was simply breezing through to the strains of Colours Of The Wind. She is another dancer who would certainly go far, given the opportunity.

Ranging from 4 - 21 years, the students turned out as fireflies , butterflies , cats and snakes (dancing up ladders as well), their costumes also communicating a language that complemented their performance. The fireflies were zzzzzzing, butterflies in a kaleidoscope of colours were flitting around and the snakes were slithering all over. And gracefully menacing, as well. No harm done!

And oh! The Snake Charmer was quite charming too. Rainbows in violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red did their little number, their dresses adding to the beauty of their performance.

Creativity was at its best with performances like Thunder And Lightning with special effects, Red Hot to the tune of Big Spender by Shirley McLaine, Most Beautiful Girl with the girls gracefully sliding through hoops, Complex with five performers who were bound to each other by yards of ribbon and did not end up in a tangle, rather they extricated themselves with ease and poise, Los Super Seven who ‘tapped’ their way through and strongly reminded one of being in Rio at Carnival time, Intruder with Shiyani, Michelle and Hasitha and the finale — Viva la France which was a saucy performance of the Can Can of years gone by.

Though Kanthi is an exponent of ballet, quite often one sees a fusion of various other dance forms as a part of the programme. Someone in the audience commented that it would have been ‘nice’ to see only ballet. Whilst the writer could relate to that line of thought, audiences today, on the other hand, are not so specific that a performance such as this should be confined to one type of dance. Hence a range of dances gives an opportunity for many students to showcase their talent, especially when they are venturing out as future prima donnas.

The premier of the Hindi movie Jhoom Barabar Jhoom will be screened at the Liberty Cinema this Friday at 3 p.m. The film is distributed by E.A.P. Films (Pvt) Ltd.

Busy London station. Delayed train from Birmingham. Two strangers waiting for the train. Rikki Thukral (Abishek Bachchan) born in Bhatinda living in London, and Alvira Khan (Preity Zinta) more British than the Queen herself, however with Lahori blood in her veins.

Crowded café one table to share. Two hours to kill. Perfect setting for the start of a love story. Hitch? Both Rikki and Alvira are engaged and have come to pick up their fiancés who are arriving in the same train. To kill time, they begin telling each other ‘how I met my fiancé’ stories.

Rikki met his fiancé Anaida (Lara Dutta) at the Ritz (Paris) the same night that princess Diana and Dodi walked out of the hotel and into the paparazzi. Rikki goes on to say "when two lovers die another two are a born" They dance…. They sing…. They’re in love.

Alvira a princess by birth, discovers her prince at   Madame Tussaund’s, when a gigantic wax model of a superman falls from the ceiling.

The two talkers are irresistibly drawn to each other. What next?