Aruna Rao is a Florida-based painter who creates vibrant coastal landscape paintings in Oils. Her work primarily explores the beauty of light, color, and atmosphere in the landscape.
Aruna was born and raised in a literary family in India. Exposed to world literature and art from a young age, she discovered the work of French impressionists like Degas, Monet, and Van Gogh, which first sparked her interest in painting.
Immigrating to the US in 1996, she worked in Information Technology before rediscovering her passion for painting in 2013. She decided to enroll in the MFA Painting program at San Francisco’s Academy of Art University. Her love for nature and travel, prompted her to focus on the landscape genre of painting.
After graduating with top honors, she has been painting full-time since 2019. She has lived and painted in various parts of the US, from Michigan to California to the mountain ranges of Colorado. She now resides in Central Florida, which she is happy to call home. Never too far from the ocean and beaches, she enjoys exploring and painting Florida's picturesque coastal and tropical scenery.
Her art has been accepted into regional and international juried shows such as the Oil Painters of America and ARC Salon. She has also been featured in the 2020 'Artists to Watch' section of the Southwest Art Magazine.
When not in her studio painting, she loves spending time with her husband and her two adorable cats.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Is there anything more magical than how light transforms land as it moves across space? I am inspired to capture this intangible beauty of light in my impressionistic oil paintings, which celebrate places filled with light, color, and atmosphere.
When seeking a subject matter for painting, I find beauty in various settings - from the everyday commonplace to the quaint and picturesque. Living in Florida offers me rich and diverse material, from gorgeous sunsets to stunning beaches to charming coastal towns. I also love incorporating human narratives centering on joy, simplicity, and nostalgia into my landscapes.
One of the joys for me as a landscape artist is traveling to different places and experiencing them through my observations, sketches, and photographs. I bring all this back to my studio, where I recreate those scenes and moments on my canvas. It is a process of close observation combined with imaginative exploration.
Ultimately the common thread that runs through my work is that I use beautiful light, harmonious colors, and painterly textures to convey that sense of place to the viewer. This way, I want to invite my viewers to rediscover the essence of nature and the inherent beauty surrounding us when we take a step back and focus on the here and now.
