It took someone like Dewa to capture nuances of Bali's blessedness. In his capacity he then responds to this nuance into his canvases. Dewa's fascination to arts probably began from his being exposed to the creative process of few Indonesian maestros from Java who made a trip to Bali to capture the island’s exoticism.

Dewa Gede Ardhana was born in Ubud on the 14th May 1952. He is the son of Dewa Putu Purna, a teacher of Bahasa Jawa Kuno (Old Javanese), and Desak Rai Berati, known with affection by most Ubud residents–both Balinese and visitors—as 'Ibu Rai'.

The fifties were bringing Ubud to a significant junction in time. The flow of cultural past relaying Bali's spiritual life was being induced through channels of change. Transformations in daily environment and ever-widening exposure to an outside world were instigating a remodeling of expression.



During his childhood and youth, Dewa travelled. His father was appointed to a government school in Singaraja and their residence was located close to a village where cock fighting was in full vigor. Dewa spent a lot of time observing the grooming of cocks and gained conversancy with their anatomy. His first fully fledged paintings. From this observation Dewa actually was sharpening his skills in drawing the anatomy of a cock. The images of a cock later on Dewa's mature life to date keep reoccurring on his canvas.

Back in Ubud after a short spell in Jogya, following the death of his father, Dewa came in contact with contemporary Indonesian painters through the warung that his widowed mother opened in the main area of Ubud. Ibu Rai and Ibu Okawati - two legendary names amongst the artists, spiritual seekers and travellers that were beginning to assemble in Ubud - were the first ot cater to the 'Western' palate. Their warung quickly became a main meeting place and station of exchange. Although by now not unfamiliar with the paintings of Walter Spies, Antonio Blanco, Covarrubias, and Hans Snell, it was his first depth exposure to Indonesian painters from outside of Bali.

Through his mother's warung, Dewa was positioned to meet and and observe work in progress of such artists as Abdullah, Abdul Asiz, and Affandi. In some cases, he was more fascinated by the actual artist procedure than the result. He remembers vividly Affandi seating himself, nasi bungkus in hand, at the central wantilan. After taking a few mouthfuls himself, Affandi flung the remains to the crowd of dogs that were gathering and entered a fever of activity with his paintbrush, catching the scene he had created. However Affandi's other paintings did not really attract him at the time. He was more drawn to traditional styles of painting, and the recreation of a subject on canvas through the application of conventional perspective: depth-height, proximity-distance, light and darkness.