An ink jet recording apparatus includes an ink composition including a pigment and a resin and not substantially including an alkyl polyol with a standard boiling point of 280° or higher; a recording head including a plurality of nozzles that discharge the ink composition, and a nozzle forming surface having the discharge ports of the plurality of nozzles; an absorption member that absorbs the ink attached to the discharge ports of the nozzles and the nozzle formation surface; and a driving mechanism that performs a cleaning operation by relatively moving at least one of the absorption member and the recording head, and removing the ink composition attached to the nozzle forming surface with the absorption member, where the resin is a core-shell resin provided with a core polymer and a shell polymer, and a glass-transition temperature of the shell polymer is higher than a glass-transition temperature of the core polymer.