Smita Rao is an award winning Bucks County artist, pioneering use of mixed digital media to create novel artwork to express her love of the local landscape.

Ms. Rao is a soft spoken, petite woman, with a large mind, and a big heart. She has developed her refined artistic sense and sensibility starting with her fine arts education in India. Ms. Rao re-tooled her work in the past 7 years to embrace digital capture, artistic creation and enhancement on the computer, and fine art digital printing. She now digitally mixes photographs, pencil and ink drawings, and watercolors to create her finished art.

Like many artists, she starts with a strong vision and feeling, and then translates it to how she wants to visually speak to the head and heart of the viewer of her work.

Ms. Rao states: “Being immersed in the natural beauty that surrounds us, this artistic process allows me to bring my own visual voice to how I react to my surroundings. I start with an image that I see in my mind’s eye, which is quite complete in its detail. I then decompose this visualized image into several elements, overlaying layers, and media techniques. Next, I use physical tools (cameras, pens, brushes, and computer mouse) to connect lines and thoughts that are in the abstract. For example, imagine constructing an image using plastic transparency overlays, one or several on which you have a photograph or part of a photograph, one on which you make a pencil and ink drawing, and one on which you make a watercolor. None of these individual layers by themselves are the true complete expression of the image I first perceived in my mind. But, when all these layers are electronically fused and flattened together by me and held to the light, so to speak, I reach the initial image in my mind. The only difference is that now it is a beautiful tangible and physical experience that can be shared with others.”

Further, Ms. Rao states: “Since my process is about combining artistic techniques it requires mastery over several media. One has to be able to express through ink, pencil, photography, etc. and also have a clear understanding of these separate entities, and how they will all merge together. To blend these once separate visual ideas, I have to master another tool: the digital. Since the computer screen is illuminated, unlike the paper, one must apply a new perception of light and color, and be aware of these subtle changes. Finally, the finished product is printed on paper again, which is another artistic challenge in terms of color management and surface “feel” and look of the final work.

As example, Ms. Rao’s View from Plumstead above is in part ink and pencil drawings, based on views in her neighborhood. Some parts are created with several photographs, and these layers have been blended and enhanced digitally. She says, “Overall, it expresses the way I perceive and translate this particular landscape in my visual experience.”

Ms. Rao’s final works are printed by a master printer on state of the art professional inkjet printers using archival inks and paper. Each work is pencil signed and numbered, and then archivally matted and framed.

Juried Shows

Mixed Media Gallery Juried Drawing Exhibition 2005 Doylestown, PA./ Oct 21 Nov29 2005

McKinney Gallery Philadelphia/Tri State Artist Equity 56th Anniversary Exhibition 2005

Perkins Center of the Arts ‘Works on Paper’ October 2004 (Juror: Judith Brodsky)

Berman Museum of Art ‘Philadelphia/Tri State Artists Equity 55th Anniversary Exhibition June 2004 (Juror: Brian H. Peterson)

Abington Art Center Annual Juried Show, Abington, PA December 13, 2003

Woodmere Art Museum 63rd Annual Juried Show, Philadelphia PA, 2003

April 2001 36th Annual Bucks County Community College Student Exhibition (Juried)

April 2000 35th Annual Bucks County Community College Student Exhibition (Juried)

Works Exhibited

Petite Splendor at Radclyffe Gallery and Framing. Lahaska, PA. December 3 - 31, 2005.

‘Bucks County Landscapes Revisited.’ The Gallery at the Frame Shop, Lambertville, NJ. November 13- 30, 2005

‘Galaxy 2005, Benefit of Network of Victim Assistance,’ Doylestown, PA. October 21-23, 2005

‘Honoring Bucks County Artist Smita Rao’ Sabine Rose Gallery, Doylestown, PA. July 9, 2005

‘Resolution: Coming to Terms with Digital Prints’ Hicks Art Gallery, BCCC. February 9, 2005

‘Varied Vistas’ Featured Artist Radclyffe Gallery, Lahaska, PA. March 2004

‘Bella Femmina’ Sabine Rose Gallery, Doylestown, PA. October 2003

MCS Gallery Exhibition, Easton, PA. July 2003

‘Icons’ Sabine Rose Gallery, Doylestown, PA. June 2003

‘Abstract Beauté’ Sabine Rose Gallery, Doylestown, PA. January 2003

Members Show Artsbridge Gallery, Lambertville, NJ. January 2003

‘Petits Tresors’ Sabine Rose Gallery, Doylestown, PA. November 2002

Rhinehart-Fischer Gallery, Trenton, New Jersey.

Awards

Datatel Scholarship, Academic Excellence in High Technology, 2001

Women’s Opportunity Award, Soroptimist International of Bucks County, 2001.

Legacy Scholarship, 2002-2003, Bucks County Community College, Newtown, PA.

Bucks County Chapter of OWL Scholarship Grant December 2003

Sarah Mildred Watkins Memorial Scholarship at 2003 Honors Convocation

Matthew W. Stuski Student Artist Prize 2004

The Leeway Foundation Window of Opportunity Recipient January 2004

Central Bucks Chamber of Commerce Women in Business Scholarship 2005

Exhibits

For details of Ms. Rao's upcoming shows, please see: http://www.smitarao.com/exhibitions.htm

For examples of Ms. Rao’s work, please see Links page on this site, and click under Smita Rao.

All text and images on this page © 2006 Smita Rao. Business and marketing consulting provided by William Hooper Photography.

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