Jay Varma is a gifted artist who combines a dramatic sense of color with extraordinary detail. His artistic style combines flawless realism with a distinct and subtly rendered application of bold and brilliant color, with a focus on light. Jay carries on a rich tradition of artistic tradition, skill, and reputation passed down through several generations of his family, including his great-great-grandfather Raja Ravi Varma and his mother Rukmini Varma. Since he can remember, humanist realism and its inherent poetry have been a constant source of inspiration for him.

Jay’s skill won him the prestigious “Sanford Award for Exceptional Merit” in 2000 at the Eighth International Colored Pencil Competition held in Birmingham, Michigan, and the “Best in Show” award in 2003/4 at the International Art & Sculpture Exhibition hosted by the Mid-Michigan Art Guild. His work has been featured in the Artist’s Magazine, The International Artist, and the Detroit Free Press, to name a few. Jay has been to the United States at Studio Incamminati, understanding the principles of realism, and Germany where he developed techniques using graphite on paper and charcoal on canvas. Using these methods and further imbued with his own personal style, he is now working on a series of oil paintings encapsulating these ideas.