Nayanajith Premaratne:

Experimenting with water colours and digital painting

Nayanajith Premaratne's persistent passion for drawing was due to his environment at home. He was fascinated by drawing from childhood and expressed his desire to become an artist. As a little boy he grew up in the typical surroundings of a home in which there was an ardent interest in art and music. Therefore, his house was full of sketches of temple paintings, traditional Sinhalese paintings and other indigenous art forms.

He hails from a family of artists. His grandfather was an exponent of Buddhist art. He was the best Sri Lankan artist for murals, portraits and sculpture of the early decades of the 20th century, known as Kala Guru M. Sarlis.

Nayanajith's father was a reputed picture story illustrator Kala Bushana Susil Premaratne. His father not only excelled in art but music too. He was dubbed 'the singing artist'.

Nayanajith started his education at S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia which has already produced a few painters of repute. Some of them are Gate Mudliyar A.C.G.S. Amarasekera and Justin Deriniyagala.

Nayanajith received his first art lessons from his father and later he came under the tutelage of the reputable water colour artist Kalasoori G.S. Fernando. Having learned the basic techniques of water-colour painting from his father, he gained maturity from his guru Kalasoori G.S. Fernando who moulded him as a budding artist.

He began life as a commercial artist in the advertising field and rose up as art director, creative director and later quit advertising to turned to information technology, digital painting and creative art.

He is engaged in water-colour painting and describes it as a highly expressive form of art that is both exciting and enjoyable. He experiments with digital painting.

He has originated a water-colour painting and a digital painting to show the difference in technique. He has been teaching art for some time and recently became the author of a book entitled Dharshana Chitra.

The book will help any child and even an adult interested in painting sceneries methodically and overcome difficulties. Nayanajith was born on May 24, 1956.

He married Vasantha Vimuthini Premaratne and is a proud father of a daughter Madhushani who has passed part 1 Visarada examination in Hindustani Ragadari music. She also has to her credit a few songs sung with her grandfather Kalabushana Susil Premaratne. Nayanajith is planning to hold an exhibition of his recent work shortly.