Karla Pirona

I am Karla Pirona. I was born in Venezuela in 1978. I have been a figurative oil painter since 2010, but since I remember, I was always drawing or painting.

I was born in an environment in which several of my family members are art inclined. My grandmother's home had its walls covered with my uncles' and aunts' paintings and my mother was a High School Art History teacher. In my early years I used to find myself deep absorbed in Art History textbooks, drawing, coloring, and painting. 

When I was 14 years old, I attended a summer painting workshop, where I learned the basic notions of drawing, oil, and watercolor. The next year I started Music Performance at the Conservatory of my natal city Barquisimeto, and completely unrelated with the arts I also started Chemical Engineering obtaining my degree in 2000 and years later a Master degree in Process Control Engineering.

During my college years I had painting as a hobby, becoming gradually a self-taught artist. I started to imitate the style of the great masters of painting. My favorites were: Velázquez, Dürer, Degas and Corot. Oil on canvas was my favorite medium to work. 

While I was working in the technological and scientific field, I could not avoid the call of the arts. I used to visit art salons, museums, and exhibitions.

Finally in 2010 I left the professional practice of Engineering to dedicate myself entirely to familiar life and oil painting. 

The next year I started to participate in Art Contests in Venezuela, winning 1st place, for my first original painting. There, my road in art competitions began. 

I was inspired to paint places and people in their daily life. 

I worked in several international art commissions, but it was until 2012 that I registered my work in an international competition.  One of my paintings was selected among the 10 finalists of the XXVII Diego de Losada Hispano- American Painting Contest, in Spain, being part of the Collective Exhibition at the Losada Palace, Zamora, Spain.

In 2017, I immigrated with my family to the US. 

In 2021 one of my artworks about the Venezuelan migration "Manuel en su taller" was preselected to travel to the European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM) for Figurativas 2021.

Most recently, last June 8th, my artwork "Southgate" was awarded 1st place in the "Faces and Places” Regional Juried Show in Art Center Sarasota. 

In that painting I explore a new approach in my artwork inspired by the color and brushstrokes of John Singer Sargent masterpieces.   

In this journey as an artist, God was guiding every step. I'm always feeling the need to paint. I can't bear the burden of going one day without painting although I need to wake up about 3 am to do it because my days are dedicated to take care of my lovely youngest son with special needs.

Currently, I live in Lakeland, Fl with my husband and my four children.