Born in California and raised on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Lisa Kovvuri received her BFA degree in printmaking in 1991 from the Cleveland Institute of Art. She began to seriously pursue painting after moving to Sacramento, California in 1999 where she joined a figure painting group and began exhibiting her work in juried exhibitions and galleries in the area. In 2005 she and her family lived abroad for a year in India. After returning to the United States she settled in southeastern New Hampshire where she now lives with her husband and two sons.
Known for her portrait and figurative works, Kovvuri's paintings are characterized by a direct painting approach that is carried through to a refined finish with sensitively considered detail. Skilled draftsmanship and a keen eye for subtlety have earned her a reputation for paintings imbued with a natural realism, reaching beneath the surface of appearances to expose the subtle poetry of an honest, unguarded human presence in her subjects.
A brief but formative intensive painting course at Studio Incamminati in Philadelphia, PA began Kovvuri's professional training in painting. She went on to study the methods of the Boston School, first in still life workshops with Sam Vokey, then spent four and a half years painting portraits from life with Mary Minifie at Ingbretson Studios in Manchester, NH.
For inspiration, Kovvuri says she is drawn to painters of the past and present whose work shows a concern for a vivid sense of reality within a compelling visual idea or story. Jean-Leon Gerome, Ilya Repin, Anders Zorn, John Singer Sargent and William-Adolphe Bouguereau are among her historical influences.
