“I am Runa, a self-taught visual artist. I was born in India and moved to Alberta, Canada in 2007. I have been a professional chef for the last fifteen years and have been painting since I was a kid. In 2016, after years of exploring different mediums and painting styles, I started finger painting, to best express my perceptions of the world around me onto the canvas, to create original works of art.
When I first moved to Canada, I was pleasantly surprised by the slower pace of life here and awed by the natural splendor of this land. Winters here offered a time for solitude and quiet reflection. In this stillness, I started visualizing in detail the world full of colours, chaos, and movement I had come from interspersed with the beauty of this new world, both of which became the subject of my paintings.
Sometimes we get so lost in our day-to-day life that we forget to pause and notice the beauty in and around us. Through my paintings, I hope to give people a sense of joy, a visual treat for their eyes, and a moment to lose themselves in a world of my imagination.
My latest works are inspired from the feelings invoked from the current events around us caused by the imbalance between life and nature and its impact on us: humans and the living flora and fauna who are equal inhabitants of this planet.”