Labor in the Mud Painting

The life, culture, beauty and conflicts of Sri Lanka are the subjects of Hemantha Warakapitiya’s paintings. He is a painter, cartoonist, and illustrator who represents the world with satirical creativity. The intricate details of his paintings document and visualize nature and the collapse of society due to political injustices and conflicts. Objects, people and phenomena from different levels of existence are brought together in his paintings to contend with his sharp eye for detail and his skill for hyper realism with photographic precision. The raw boldness he incorporates to expose the bitter truth of politics and its effect on Sri Lankan society is characterized by a great sense of humor and satire. His personal perspectives intertwine political gossip and is expressed in a neutral manner through his political cartoons. Characterized with a range of saturated and contrasting colors, he creates outstanding pieces that represent the political realities of Sri Lanka. Working with mixed media, the fluidity of his work explores the beauty and simplicity of phenomena unique to Sri Lanka, and are enhanced by his skill at rendering and replicating images with his sharp eye for proportion and scale. They transform the standard notions of art into a uniquely expressive form, that brings about social awareness. This is the sole purpose of Hemantha’s famous political cartoon series in the daily Lakbima newspapers titled ‘Warakage Sithuwama’ that illustrates and adds humor to relevant political gossip. The vibrant colors and graphically striking images Hemantha Warakapitiya incorporates in his work reflects his love for nature and satire. He also is a multi- disciplinary artist who has different artistic styles to represent a variety of subject matter that he wishes to communicate about through his art. His great skill and ability to develop a unique and different approach to a variety of aspects proves his great talent in the field of art!