Krishnaji Howlaji Ara was born in 1913, in Bolarum (near Hyderabad), Andhra Pradesh. He moved to Mumbai at the age of seven and made his first living cleaning cars. In his youth, he joined the Salt Satyagraha during India's Independence movement and later worked as a car cleaner in a Japanese firm. His Japanese employer disappeared after Japan’s attack on the Pearl Harbour, but Ara continued to live and work in the small servant’s room of the firm’s office, which served as his studio for the rest of his life.

An entirely self-taught artist, Ara's work was rooted in the joy of creativity, focusing on nudes, still life and human figure studies. He was the first contemporary Indian painter to methodically use the female nude as a subject, staying within the limits of naturalism. His work was appreciated, encouraged and supported by the then art critic for the 'Times of India', Rudy von Leyden. Ara had his first solo show in 1942 in the Chetana Restaurant in Mumbai. In 1944, he was awarded the Governor's prize for painting.

He was a founder member of the Progressive Artists' Group and had several shows with the rest of this group. In 1952, he received the Bombay Art Society's Gold Medal for his work 'Two Jugs". He was a member of the managing committee of the Bombay Art Society and served on the selection and judging committees of the Lalit Kala Akademi. In his later years he spent much of his time in the Artists' Centre.

Ara began his journey of art with a fair degree of academism, with scenes from his surroundings and portraits reminiscent of Bombay's colonial painters, following which elements of the Bengal School began to show in his work. Some influences of Cezanne and Matisse were evident in his still lives of '40s and '50s, and though fluent with the formal ways of Modernism, Ara also successfully drew inspiration from the classics.

Amongst Ara's many honours is the prestigious Governor's Award for painting in 1944, and the Gold Medal from the Bombay Art Society for his canvas Two Jugs in 1952.

Ara passed away in Mumbai in 1985.