“There has been a steady evolution in Ranil Daraniyagala’s work from the early. Sinhalese pictures with their open fluent textures to the recent sombre studies of men and women locked in a wrestle, that is at once a game of love and a struggle to the death; and the tendency of this development has been towards a greater pragmatic articulateness in handling his chosen themes. He has never lost grip on that swinging fullness and physicalness that comes across as a special Asian quality, but he has enormously increased the density and solidity of his brushwork.” – Dr. Geoffrey Thurley

Born into a renowned Sri Lankan family, Ranil Daraniyagala’s father was a paleontologist and Director of the National Museum and his grandfather Sri Lanka’s first modern historian. His uncle, Justin Daraniyagala, was a founding member of the ’43 Group, and one of Sri Lanka’s most internationally renowned painters. Perhaps the legacy of being the nephew of the renowned Sri Lankan artist, Justin Daraniyagala, manifest a genetic key in analyzing his abandonment of his scientific training in order to devote time and energy for painting and printmaking; it also perhaps a subtle manifestation of Ranil Daraniyagala’s complex character.

In his short yet extraordinary life, Ranil Daraniyagala, chose to relinquish a medical career despite the training he has received in natural sciences and clinical medicine at the most prestigious institutes in the world such as Trinity College, Cambridge and Saint Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. Thus, abandoning a probable lucrative medical practitioner career, he chose to take studies in Art and devote himself to painting and printmaking.

In his own words, even though he received training at an art schools in Europe, his firm belief was that his aim in the institutes should be to acquire ‘specific techniques’ rather than acquiring ‘opinions about (his) approach to painting,’ Thereby, his preference to follow courses in the Graphics Department and enroll himself in the courses on Methods and Materials for Painters manifest, the need in artist to master techniques. According to Ranil, the general art historical view, as is usually expounded by pundits or prophets, usually does more harm than good to an artist; thereby, his rejection of opinion on his art. On the other hand, Ranil Daraniyagala’s preference for ‘supervision’ to be ‘minimum’ even during the courses in Art that he took, manifest artist’s independent nature.

While, he was fortunate to receive formal education in printmaking from the world renowned English Printmaker, Anthony Gross, Ranil Daraniyagala personally preferred to polish his knowledge on printmaking through old manuscripts, rather than depending on knowledge from professors. In Ranil’s own words, he was extremely happy that the Professor Anthony Gross left him largely to his own devices, after having won the renowned professor’s respect on the first day of his instruction at his first burin-engraving; a fact which reveals the independent nature of this extraordinary artiste and perhaps, his confidence about his own skills.

Daraniyagala’s return to Sri Lanka, subsequent to his apprenticeship and sojourn in Europe was with a preference towards printmaking, rather than painting as he was ‘profoundly dissatisfied with … (his)work as a painter.’ His disillusion in himself as a painter was despite participating in several important art exhibitions in Europe and USA, and even at times being applauded as presenting the best work at the exhibitions by critics.

Upon his return to Sri Lanka, the extraordinary passion for creativity and printmaking in this trained-to-be-a-doctor painter led him to build himself ‘a mud hut’ with ‘stamped earth,’ and ‘cow dung,’ on a piece of land in a ‘jungle’ in Colombugama, which belonged to him. It is with his ‘painting gear and an ancient etching press’ gifted by the well-known philanthropist, Mudliyar A. C. G. S. Amarasekera, one burin, a scraper and a burnisher that he resumed the practice of engraving.

In this mud-hut made in a jungle, Daraniyagala melted down scrap copper with a use of a small forge, heated by charcoal and a hand operated blower, and hammer(ed) them into plates. Using copper plates which were thus created and the working under the guidance of the local blacksmith’s expertise, waxes from the resins in the forest, basic utensils, he created several etchings; a venture which he believed marked ‘the end of my apprenticeship.’

Despite his dissatisfaction in his capabilities in painting, he drew inspiration from an Indian book on Erotics, and drew constantly in his mud hut; etching those on the few battered copper and brass plates that he himself created and using acid and a file. Thus, he pragmatically applied the scientific knowledge he gained during medical training in the laboratories in order to professionally create etching and aquatinting for burin-engraving.

Ranil Daraniyagala’s attempts with a press which was not in use for over ‘thirty years and was a solid mass of rust,’ resulted in the production of an album of 30 erotic prints limited to a set of 24. Justin Daraniyagala, Ranil’s uncle himself had produced two line etchings and which according to Ranil, were considered the only mementoes of intaglio printing in Sri Lanka; a craft which was under practiced at that time in the island. Ranil’s experiences in these experimentations within primitive surroundings and equipment led him to question the ‘role of experimentation and its legitimate place in the arts — graphic art or any other.’

If the abandonment of his medical career for a painting career suggests Ranil Daraniyagala’s passion towards painting, the total dedication of his life to creativity is projected through the secluded and almost primary manner in which he sought to work in a mud hut in a jungle, whereas he could have worked in the most modern laboratories in the world. Thereby, passion and devotion are but understatements and inadequate expressions which describe Ranil Daraniyagala’s commitment to creativity.

The work which Daraniyagala conducted in his ‘mud hut’ led him to feel justifiable pride in his ability to adapt himself to the most adverse conditions. Further, he was fairly certain that a printmaker who has learned his craft in the usual type of modestly equipped art-school workshop surroundings in Europe or the United States would probably be at a loss with his equipment. On the other hand, in his own opinion his dislike for the established machines of engraving, was largely due to the boredom engendered by routine work, since as he believed that his aim as a creator was not to refine on his design, but to radically alter it by the successive application of various techniques.

Due to many reasons, Ranil Daraniyagala believed himself to be a Traditionalist. His manner of learning, where he used empirical and improvisatory techniques in which the ‘attitude … places the responsibility for methods and results squarely on the artist’s personal needs, and demands from him a flexibility which is indispensable to working under all sorts of less than ideal conditions,’ was one reason that he called himself a Traditionalist. In addition, he believed that he was ‘someone who squat(tted) firmly in the present, one foot resting on the past and the other on the future.’ He believed that these three time components must, of course, be strictly individuated to the artist in question. Thereby, for him, a genuine traditionalist artist grasps the history, makes use of it and looks to the future for improvisations.

Ranil Daraniyagala’s struggling with alcoholism, is at times suggested as a tendency which arose due to the lack of recognition, reception and due acknowledgement, that he so deserved in the country. However, it could be also suggested that his chosen field was not adequately recognized within the art world in Sri Lanka, at that time, such as oil painting, a field where he could have achieved fame. However, his dedication and concentration on Gravure, led him to complete very little oil painting. Dedicating his whole life to gravure, during his last days, Daraniyagala moved to his residence at Kuruvita, and with the use of a larger etching press which he gained through Tony Muller spent his time teaching techniques of Gravure and Intaglio printing to village lads alike a true traditionalist. His life which ended in suicide when he was merely 42 years old though he had already become the leading printer in the country by that time, depict the characteristics of an ingenious and independent artiste who chose complexity over simplicity in art and life.