Ravi Wilkie
Visual Arts: Fine Art, Illustration, Mixed Media, Murals, Other, Painting, Wall Treatments, Watercolor; Art Restoration
Growing up in an unstable household I began to use art as my own form of meditation at a really young age. When I was 13 I got my first job in Boulder Colorado, as an artist’s assistant, and have been working as a professional artist ever since. Before I graduated high school I studied art at Colorado University, and at 18, I left Colorado, and moved to New York City. There I got a job hand finishing at one of the top fine art frame shop in the industry and began to master my craft.
After several years I ended up in showbiz where I managed the paint department at a scene shop in Brooklyn. There I spent most of my time painting back drops and set pieces for film, theater, television and trade show events. This enabled me to hone my faux finishing and paint treatment skills. While living in NYC I also ended up doing a fair amount of freelance illustration and even a bit of tattooing.
During that time I met my wife, Elena and in 2013 we got married. Then we decided to move, and we started our new life in Redondo Beach, California in 2015. I landed a job at Poster Mountain, an art restoration shop, conserving and restoring original artwork and print media.
In 2020 when the pandemic hit we decided to move out of LA and head to the desert, where we settled in La Quinta. I worked part time as a chalk artist, but by that point I was really itching to do my own thing. I started getting more commission work, which began to grow really quickly and before long I was booked up with murals. I was growing so fast that I needed help. Elena decided she also needed a change and she left her 25year career as a hairstylist. We were then able to focus on growing our business together and finding a new creative outlet for Elena. This gave way to making her own jewelry and me creating more art, so we sort of became an artist hub for each other and Wilkie Studios was born. Since then we have been busy painting murals, doing pop up festivals and finding more local shops to partner and grow with.
