Lisa Botto Lee is an award-winning artist working in the tradition of classical realism, creating paintings and drawings centered on the human figure, horses, and wildlife. Her work is defined by rigorous observation, anatomical understanding, and emotional presence. A fifth-generation artist, Lee carries forward a lineage of European painters and muralists while developing a distinctly contemporary voice within the realist tradition.
Raised in the studio of her father, acclaimed equine painter Richard A. Botto, Lee was immersed from an early age in the discipline and craft of representational painting. Her work extends this artistic inheritance into a personal exploration of character, movement, atmosphere, and the profound connection between humans and the natural world.
Lee’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Reading Public Museum, Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, Coral Springs Museum of Art, Allied Artists of America, Art Renewal Center, Salmagundi Club, National Arts Club, Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, and other museums, galleries, and international juried exhibitions. Her drawing The Watchman was featured in American Artist Magazine’s The Best of Drawing: Strokes of Genius (2024). The Storyteller was selected for the Almenara International Art Prize virtual exhibition and invited to the live invitational exhibition with Allied Artists of America at the Reading Public Museum in Pennsylvania (2025). Midnight Fury was selected for the 2026 Almenara Art Prize virtual exhibition, longlisted for the in-person exhibition in Córdoba, Spain, and selected for the 113th Allied Artists of America Annual Exhibition, on view virtually from September 1, 2026, through September 1, 2027.
Lee and her father, Richard A. Botto, are featured together in the forthcoming book New Jersey Masters: A New Legacy of Visual Arts by Tova Navarra and Yolanda Navarra Fleming, scheduled for release on September 30, 2026. This book celebrates the influence of New Jersey artists, creating legacies of visual arts that contribute significantly to American culture.
In 2027, Lee will undertake a residency at Château d’Orquevaux Artists & Writers Residency in Champagne-Ardenne, France, recognized as “The Highest Rated Artist Residency in the World” since 2017. Selected through a highly competitive international review that represents artists from more than 120 countries, Lee was among the top 20% of artists accepted into the program and was awarded the Denis Diderot Grant. Her two-week residency is scheduled for May 14–27, 2027, and a work created during the residency will enter the Château’s permanent collection.
Her painting Beyond the Window has traveled to the Moon on two successful lunar missions. In February 2024, the work journeyed to the Moon aboard Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lunar lander, launched by SpaceX on a Falcon 9 rocket, as part of the first U.S. commercial lunar landing since the Apollo era. In January 2025, the painting traveled again aboard Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1, which successfully landed on the Moon in March 2025. Both landing sites have since been recognized as Artemis Accords Heritage Sites, preserving these historic locations for future generations. In 2025, Lee was also featured in Manifest for the Moon, published by Snap Collective Publishing in collaboration with the Lunar Codex and Burning Man.
Lee studied at the Parsons School of Design, The Reilly League of Artists, and The Ridgewood Institute of Art. Her paintings and drawings are held in private and corporate collections throughout the United States and abroad.