Lakmini Amararathne started her career in

paintings with the blessings and guidance of her father, Senior Lecturer of the uni-versity of ‘Visual and per-forming arts’ late L S E Amararathne, who was the author of famous series of school books in Sri Lanka titled ‘Kumarodaya’. Her mother, Karuna Kumari Amararathne too, is a famous children’s book writer ‘Ali Kalabalaya’, ‘Punchi Giravi’ and ‘Keek Keealla’.

Her paintings have won a number of gold medals in

international and local art competitions. Few of her paintings are displayed in overseas galleries, Presi-dent’s house and Prime Minister’s office. She was also elected to represent the country at the Com-monwealth Art Exhibition held in Malaysia in 1998.

She started her own Art School ‘Lakmini’s School of Art’ – in 2000, with the objective of sharing her knowledge and experience as an artist with talented young children, to improve their skills and creativity. Her students have already

won recognition in local art exhibitions and very soon will compete at an interna-tional level. She was also the Art Teacher at S Thom-as College, Mount Lavinia.

She was among the first batch of Sirimavo Bandara-naike Balika Vidyalaya and she signified her future career as an artist by draw-ing the portrait of then Education Minister Dr. Badurdeen Mahamud at the naming ceremony of Siri-mavo Bandaranaike Vidya-laya. As a result of passing the scholarship exam in Grade Five she entered Visakha Vidyalaya. While reading for her degree in Bio Science, she completed

a three year painting course in ‘Ceylon Society of Art’. At the same time she was engaged in Msc course study in painting conserva-tion at the University of Moratuwa. She has given her contribution for South East Asia’s first mural painting conducted by the Library Services Board. She covered the largest area of the mural-banyan tree reaching upto fourth floor.

Lakmini will be having her exhibition – Rhythm of Life at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery from August 24 to the 26. The exhibition will open at 5pm today and to the public from 10am on Saturday and Sunday.

The Canon Digital SLR workshop organized

by Metropolitan. Held at Mount Lavinia Hotel this two day workshop on Trav-el Photography was con-ducted recently by Jino

Lee a Resident Instructor/ Trainer from Canon Singa-pore. Here Many photogra-phy Technics and tips for better travel photography was shared along with a practical session. Canon

and Metropolitan has always aimed to offer the best technology and to provide the necessary skill and knowledge to the pho-tography industry in Sri Lanka.

Barista Lavazza hosted a unique ‘Open Mic’

night at its Gandhara out-let recently. The event, commencing at 4 pm treat-ed participants and patrons alike to a fusion of musical and vocal talent from a host of amateur and semi-professionals.

With a focus on promot-ing the creative aspirations of amateur talent in music, poetry and stand-up com-edy an evening of blending caffeine with creativity, Barista’s first Open Mic night was a huge draw with 15 performers play-ing a mixed repertoire consisting of classics to modern rock ballads and originals.

“This is just one of the events we have planned to promote creativity and tal-ent among the young and young at heart in and around Colombo. The event is open to all comers and we foresee a gathering of like-minded individuals who showcase their tal-ents and are appreciative of creativity in others”, a spokesperson for Barista said.

As this is the first event of its kind hosted by Bar-

ista, places are limited due to the time constraint and participants are encour-aged to register early.

“We continue to stress on quality coffee, a cozy ambiance and value for money deals on our food as well. This is yet another way for us to offer our patrons and coffee lovers a platform to showcase their talents”, the spokesperson stressed.

Slated to be a monthly

event, Barista’s ‘Open Mic’ night will be on the boards again this month and promises to be bigger and better. “We are working towards making this event a showcase and stepping stone for up-and-coming talent. We envision a host of promotional activity around this event and fans of good coffee and music should stay tuned for more,” the spokesperson added. Barista affirmed its

commitment to ‘coffeehol-ics’ in Sri Lanka with the opening of a new outlet at the Bandaranaike Interna-tional Airport as well as a new and improved loca-tion in Rajagiriya recently. The coming months prom-ise a host of updated menu options, with mouth-watering savoury and sweet delights, while all-new beverage recipes and great competitions are also on the cards.

Since its inception in May 2011, the Maalu

Maalu Resort and Spa as a socially responsible company has taken an ini-tiative to help and improve the local com-munity, setting the bench-mark for the other hotels coming up in the region and simultaneously pro-moting sustainable tour-ism in the Passekudah region.

In its first year of opera-tions alone, the hotel set its focus on improving the education of the children in the area by funding the construction of a fully equipped computer lab and an English learning centre in Kalkudah at which over 120 students currently study. The cen-tre aims to educate and promote the youth in the

area by providing oppor-tunities for further employment and skills development. Maalu Maalu continues to fund this initiative by contrib-uting a dollar from each occupied room for the maintenance and opera-tion of this educational centre.

Adding to their CSR portfolio, the resort in collaboration with ‘Recon-struire et Vivre,’ a non-profit organization and the Social Tourism Net-work of the Levallois Municipality (French city), has taken it upon itself to construct a house for a war widow residing in Pethalai who was dis-placed during the time the 30-year conflict was ongoing.

The widow’s husband

went missing in October 2000 and since then, the mother and her two chil-dren have been finding it difficult to make ends meet. The cost of the house was over 8 lakhs and the foundation stone was laid on June 6, 2012. Construction of the house commenced with the assistance of a group of 13 French students from Levallois accompanied by an education instructor who arrived in the coun-try last month. Maalu Maalu has collaborated with Reconstruire et

Vivre before on similar projects including the construction of the learn-ing centre in Kalkudah.

A second batch of 20 French students from Levallois arrived in Sri Lanka earlier this month to complete the project and handed over the keys to Mrs. Pushpalatha upon completion of the house on August 11.

During the course of the construction of this house, a second home too was plastered and painted on August 5 by the group of French students. Sath-

ya Kumaran Nawamalar, the owner of this house, is being further assisted monetarily by the open-ing of a fixed deposit account for her children Sathyakumaran Gajen-than and Sathyakumaran Gajelaksa by French ben-efactors at the Sanasa Development Bank, Vala-ichchenai.

As the first luxury bou-tique hotel to open on the East coast of Sri Lanka and one of the first prop-erties to open under the ‘Negenahira Nawodaya’ initiative, Maalu Maalu has set the bar high for other properties rapidly coming in the region. The resort’s Chairman Chan-dra Wickramasinghe embarked on this project at a time when the region was not conducive for tourism.

Three months of being in operation, Maalu Maalu won a prominent accolade by being ranked among the top 100 hotels in the world by UK based Sunday Times Traveller.

NipuNi Wimalapala

People who love to have romantic evenings with

groovy music and good food in a chilly milieu would definitely get an amazing chance to enjoy all this at the Grand Oriental Hotel as they unveil their new night club B52 tomorrow.

The grand opening exposes a novel mode of getting unstoppable fun. The club combines with a pub named Stallion which has got its own signature for chill out and relaxation. The B52 opened from Thursday to Sunday encom-passes of the sparkling and modernized wooden dance floor complete with state-of

art audio and visual enhancement. Definitely the place will twist you up with the great DJ music. The club has also got its own private lounge.

Stallion Pub has a cozy environment where one can meet and enjoy with friends and is also an ideal place to meet up with a loved one. This is specifically a very good place to also have business discussions all 7 days from 5pm to 12 mid-night. The management of GOH encourages people to have their birthday parties, get-togethers and special functions at B52. It pro-vides you with its own range of drinks of your

choice with light snack items.

The line of outstanding DJ’s who are going to make it happen are DJ Gerad, DJ Dilu and DJ Shiraj. They will surely rock the dance floor with music of our era which will curl and turn you to make the floor a splendid blast.

Throughout the month the club has planned to host various events to keep it going and make the differ-ence, with many other spe-cial promotions that will be tied up along down the line. Anyone who likes to have fun and relax should check out Club B52 on it’s open-ing night.

DNpage 21f r i d a y , a u g u s t 2 4 , 2 0 1 2 zest

The Grand Oriental team addressing the media. picture by Ranjith asanka

B52 - a night prowler’s new markThe French expats and the family with Chandra and other officials

Opening the new house

Bringing smiles to war affected passekudah residents

Getting ready for the Open mic

Open mic night hits Gandhara

Canon Digital

SlR workshop

Rhythm of lifelakmini amararathne

pictures by Sulochana Gamage