Laxman Aelay was born in the Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh in 1964. He received his BA in Painting from the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University College of Fine Arts in Hyderabad, and took up full time freelance painting straight after that. Laxman`s paintings are nostalgic, depicting the rural people he grew up amongst. His source of inspiration has been the live of these poverty stricken people from his village - Kadirenigudem.

Recently, Aelay switched over from using white, black and shades of gray, which he preferred in his paintings, to using vivid colours to depict flowers, jewellery and traditional clothing. His earlier preference to paint on large sized canvases and papers has also been abandoned, and his latest works are much smaller and compact. Aelay has received international recognition as well as several awards and gold medals for his works. These include an award from the Hyderabad Art Society in 1995.