Janaka Chaminda

Janaka Chaminda is a Sri Lankan portrait and figurative artist. He mainly works with graphite, charcoal, watercolor, and oil. He studied portraiture and figurative drawing and painting at the Vibhavi Academy of Fine Arts under the tutelage of Prof. Chandraguptha Thenuwara.

He had a knack for drawing since his childhood, even though he did not come from an artistic background. He studied art as a subject in school and was always very fond of sketching. Above all, he loves doing live portraits, as they present a very challenging task for an artist.

Internationally, he is inspired by master artists like Ivan Kramskoi, Ilya Repin, John Singer Sargent, Paul Cézanne, and others. Among Sri Lankan artists, he highly admires David Paynter and A. C. G. S. Amarasekara.

Sketching whatever he sees or whatever comes to his mind is his habit. Frankly speaking, he is obsessed with it. He strives to improve his artistic skills continuously and hopes to hold an art exhibition one day. It is still a dream for him, but he hopes that one day it will become a reality.