Piyaratne Hewabatage - talented artist

Sri Lanka has produced some of the brightest thinkers, intellectuals, political leaders, social reformers and cultural revivalists from time to time. But Piyaratne Hewabatage who was born on June 24, 1942 at Aranayaka in the Kegalle District is an exceptionally talented artist. In fact, he had rendered tremendous service in the field of Art and Culture by way of unfolding the treasures of Eastern art and revealing their values. Indeed, his work has made a tremendous impact on our cultural revival.

The beautiful terrain of distant hills, gently flowing rivers, traditional cultural background of his village, activities around the Buddhist temples, village rituals such as Bali and Thovil ceremonies, the architecture and paintings of the village shrines and temples, the customs, lifestyle of his village folk greatly influenced his thinking and urged him towards creativity.

Piyaratne Hewabatage came to Colombo and joined Heywood and qualified in his chosen medium of Art.

Thereafter, he worked at several Advertising Agencies and although he gained knowledge in the Advertising media, he was not fully satisfied. He had a burning desire to bring his little traditional village to cosmopolitan Colombo and to create Sri Lankan identity to his work.

In recognition and appreciation of his work of Art, the then Chairman of the Tourist Board Dharmasiri Senanayake appointed him in the Tourist Board. Here, Piyaratne had complete freedom to give expression to his ideas and develop his talents and expand his creative abilities.

He worked at the Tourist Board for 12 years and was able to give a new orientation to the publications of the Tourist Board. He did a lot of publicity work during the Non-Aligned Summit in 1976. After serving for 12 years at the Tourist Board, he set up his own Design Company called 'Heritage House' Ven. Galaboda Gnanissara Thera, the Podihamuduruwo at Gangaramaya Temple provided him an office at Gangaramaya property from where he developed his Graphic Design and Art.Even though he left the Tourist Board to start his own company in the field of publishing, his passion for tourism made him compile and publish the handy Tourist Guide 'Travel Lanka' which has been in print through good times and bad, even without much genius casts light. To find genius and happiness united is nearly an impossible task. But in Piyaratne Hewabatage we find a happy blend of both.