Padma Aleti

About Padma Aleti

Padma started her artistic journey in her native India where she grew up the youngest of six children. She is now based in New Jersey working as a full-time Graphic/Web Designer and pursuing her passion for Watercolor Painting. Having worked with all mediums in the past, she gravitated to watercolor for she found it more challenging than any other medium. Initially, she started with realistic paintings but slowly she moved towards impressionism and currently her paintings lie somewhere in-between.

She has become quite an accomplished painter, despite having no formal training nor the benefit of mentorship with a professional painter. She is completely self-taught. For her art is a labor of love; a way of speaking her heart out and being in unison with what nature has to offer. Her work has been represented in juried exhibitions and she won awards in a few painting competitions. She volunteers occasionally for New Jersey Watercolor Society to design the Award Certificates for the contests. On Aug 10, 2022, she will be participating in “Artists’ talks” for Monmouth County Park System’s current art exhibit Summer Nights at The Gallery to discuss her creative process.

Artist Statement

I was born in India and my love for painting started there when I was a kid. It wasn’t until I moved to the USA that I was able to find artist-quality paper and paints. It didn’t stop me from painting though. I used whatever was available in the town I lived. I had to take many breaks due to a full-time job and family responsibilities. Now that my son has grown, I am able to focus more on my lifelong passion. I am a self-taught artist, I tried different mediums, but my true passion lies with watercolors as for me, it is the most exciting, and ‘hard-to-control’ medium which makes the painting process very challenging. Watercolor amazes me with its spontaneous, unpredictable nature; leading me on a never-ending path of discovery and challenges that fuel my love of my craft.

I paint mostly in layers, working with larger shapes and light values at first, then, details and dark values at the end. I take hundreds of photos of everything that I feel has a potential for a painting. I make minor edits in Photoshop to adjust the composition and then I make a simple sketch on paper before I paint. Sometimes while sketching, I rearrange the objects if needed and remove a few to suit the composition. I don’t draw every detail as I feel that it restricts the flow. My process starts mostly with painting wet on wet with a large sable brush unless the subject demands otherwise. I leave whites unpainted but if I lose any whites in the process, I use white gouache to do final touch-ups.

When I am not painting, I like to study the works of established artists, I have a big list of favorites but some of which are: Joseph Zbukvic, Ross Paterson, and Andy Evansen. I love Edward Wesson’s simplicity, John Yardley’s instantaneousness and Alvaro Castagnet’s boldness in their paintings. My goal is to walk further towards an impressionistic style. I like painting landscapes, flowers, and places, and I also like painting people occasionally; Passion matters to me, not the subject. I like adding my own colors to every beautiful thing in this world. To me, painting is like meditation. It gives me joy and peace to my soul.

Materials I use: Arches and Saunders Waterford watercolor papers, Escoda & Isabey Sable brushes & Silver Black velvet brushes, Daniel Smith and Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolor tubes.

New Brunswick Art Salon 2022 – Watercolor and Mixed Media “After the Charm: In the Name of Autumn” Exhibition

Exhibition

2022 ‘Summer Nights’ Juried Exhibit at The Gallery, Thompson Park, New Jersey
2022 Online Juried Art Exhibition at J Mane Gallery
2022 ‘Neon Spring’ Juried Exhibit at The Gallery, Thompson Park, New Jersey
2022 NJWCS’s 2022 5th Annual Online Associate Members’ Show
2022 ‘Landscapes 2022′ in Online Juried Art Exhibition at J Mane Gallery
2022 Online Juried Art Exhibition at J Mane Gallery
2022 ‘The Silence of Winter’ Juried Exhibit at The Gallery Thompson Park, New Jersey
2021 Thompson Park Creative Arts Center, NJ, ‘Into the Woods’ Juried Exhibit