BIO

Pratima Aravabhoomi is a self-taught artist based out of Sarasota, Florida. She was born and raised in India and immigrated to the United States in 1999. 

Her fondest memory with art was when, at 8 years old, she was challenged by her friend to make money. She gladly accepted the challenge. Except, instead of earning the money, she literally made it! She took a paper, measured and cut it to size, drew the 10 rupee note with graphite and colored pencil, and gave it to her friend. Unfortunately for her, her teacher also saw the note. You can imagine what happened next. Since that incident, she decided to focus on other things to draw instead of currency. 

Pratima has been drawing realistic botanicals and still lifes in pencil and charcoal all her life. When she was 17, she went on a holiday to her aunt’s place in a coastal city called Vizag. There she met a prolific artist named Abburi who introduced her to painting.

“He placed an ordinary flower vase with a few plastic flowers and asked me to paint while he himself painted on his canvas. That day was an unforgettable day for me. The idea that an artist can turn ordinary things into an extraordinary painting all while expressing him or herself was just fascinating to me. I fell in love with painting.” - Pratima 

Her life took many twists and turns. After getting educated in computer science, graphic design and business, she worked in tech for a few years, shifted gears and ran a successful eCommerce store after that, all the while continuing to paint.

In 2020, she started painting abstracts as a way to process life and disconnect from the world. Since then she has had an established art practice with private collectors across the United States.