Tony Donaldson contemplates on Weereratne’s work as follows: “Neville drew subjects from everyday experiences – fruit sellers, village girls, lovers, outrigger canoes, musicians, dancers, and family scenes. He was attracted to water pots, stray dogs and Buddhist monks because they were so much a part of the Sri Lankan landscape that he found it impossible to avoid these subjects in his art.” Creativity was not a mere exercise of the mind for Weereratne, it was a facilitation of engagement with the world and its subjects around him. Landscapes of bold, vibrant colours such as red, orange, green, blue and yellow surround the figures in his paintings, giving them a distinctive quality made to effect changes in the beholder’s mood and emotions.

While he was interested in creating art, his works were not as politically charged as those of some other members of the ‘43 Group. His aim was to capture certain universal themes and feelings associated with being a Sri Lankan, and therefore often painted persons with blank expressions because he, by his own admission, did not know who they were. Thus, he adopted a distinct style defying recognisability, and chose not to paint portraits of specific personalities like certain artists including Aubrey Collette, Harry Pieris and Lionel Wendt of the ‘43 Group did.
In an interview with The Sunday Times in 2010 Weereratne acknowledged that despite his decision to leave Sri Lanka and migrate to Australia, he has “always been deeply attached to Sri Lanka, its traditions, its people, its landscape, the culture.”

“I took it with me. I draw on my memories of this, of my childhood, my youth.”