with oils and she currently resides in Chandler, AZ. She was born in South
India. “Growing up, I loved to draw and sketch in my spare time. It was mostly
Disney characters and figures from Indian mythology.” Ashwini received her
formal education in the field of Materials Science and Engineering. After
completing her Bachelor’s degree at the Indian Institute of Technology
Madras, she moved to the US in 2005 to pursue her Master’s and PhD at The
Ohio State University. There she attended a painting class one summer for
fun and has been hooked ever since. After getting her PhD, she worked in the
semiconductor industry for a few years. “Even while working in the corporate
world, I had this constant itch to paint.” Ashwini finally took the plunge and
quit her industry job to explore something at the intersection of art and
science. She first started a YouTube channel where she created and shared
science video lessons. She then collaborated with TED-Ed (www.ed.ted.com)
and helped create a few short movies. “I also started painting more seriously
around this time and eventually decided to pursue art full-time. The act of
creating something realistic and beautiful from scratch brought a lot of joy to
me.”
Ashwini’s art education has been primarily through workshops at the
Scottsdale Artists’ School and books like Richard Schmid’s ‘ALLA PRIMA’. She
has studied with Susan Lyon, Daniel Keys, Suchitra Bhosle, Louis Carr, Todd
Casey, Ned Mueller, Adrien Gottlieb, Kathleen Speranza and Gustavo Ramos.
Ashwini is now an instructor at the Scottsdale Artists’ School.
