Stay connected

Studio

A closer look at the work as it unfolds.

New paintings, exhibitions, and occasional notes from the studio—sent directly to your inbox.

About the artist

Rouzbeh Delijani

An oil painter, teacher, and lifelong student of the human condition.

Classical realism gives my work its foundation. Impressionist light, atmosphere, and edges leave room for the living experience of a subject.

Rouz taking a studio selfie beside his painted self-portrait
Rouz in the studio.

Artist philosophy

Art as a path to now.

“I will commit my life to make the strongest connection with reality now.”

Painting is how I practice paying attention. A face, a gesture, a change in light: each asks me to slow down and look again. The longer I stay with a subject, the more my assumptions give way to what is actually there.

I work between precision and openness. Classical training helps me understand proportion, structure, and value. A freer handling of paint lets edges disappear and atmosphere emerge. I want the discipline of observation to remain alive in the painting.

The human condition is at the center of my work: our need for connection, our struggle for purpose, and our capacity to endure. My Iranian background and the experience of migration inform that inquiry. In work concerned with history and injustice, I am drawn to witnessing—to giving human experience a form that can be met and remembered.

Daily drawing and painting turn these ideas into practice. Teaching extends that practice to others: learning to see more clearly, taking the next step without certainty, and building confidence through attention.

Biography

A life in observation.

Rouzbeh Navid Delijani, who signs his paintings “Rouz,” is an Iranian-born artist based in California. He moved to the United States in 1996. His work encompasses portraiture, the figure, landscape, and still life, with portrait painting central to his current practice.

His studies have taken him from Golden Gate Atelier in Oakland to the Academy of Realist Art Mexico in Querétaro and Atelier Barrera Ripoll in San Miguel de Allende. Through sustained study, master copies, and work from life, he has developed a practice grounded in classical realism, with impressionist and occasional surrealist sensibilities.

2022
Golden Gate Atelier · Oakland, California
2023
Academy of Realist Art Mexico · Querétaro, Mexico
2024
Atelier Barrera Ripoll · San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

His work has been presented in solo exhibitions and private shows. He received a Sheridan Prize for Art award in 2022.

Alongside his studio practice, Rouz develops drawing instruction that brings observation, proportion, gesture, edges, color, and value into a connected approach. His teaching emphasizes both skill and the confidence to begin.

Explore the work

RouzArts

Support the studio

If you’d like to support my painting, you can contribute any amount.

Thank you for supporting my work.