ARTIST BIOGRAPHY:

About the Artist…

Tomisha Lovely-Allen, a self-taught representational realist visual artist, has been a passionate creative since childhood. She earned a bachelor’s & associate’s degree in Accounting & Business Administration, respectively from Northern Kentucky University. She also earned her Certified Public Accountant’s license and practiced in accounting for many years.  Her artistic journey was rekindled as she experimented with various mediums and came to appreciate the buttery consistency of oil paint. She is most drawn to creating portrait & figurative works. Capturing individuals, as in a glimpse of time; naturally poised and slightly invasive intrigues her.  Tomisha seeks to pique the curiosity of the viewer by allowing them to connect with the humanity of the subject(s) and contemplate their thoughts, emotions, environment, and mood. Recently, she has been exploring developing more complex narratives and environments for her figure subjects to exist in. She also enjoys stretching creative expression by exploring other subjects and mediums as in this series of oil painted florals and clouds created in 2025 and 2026.

Tomisha has exhibited at the KMAC Museum, Maybe It’s Fate, Kore Gallery, Louisville Visual Arts Association, Cressman Center for Visual Arts, Roots 101 Museum, Art Center of the Bluegrass, Zephyr Gallery, West Elm Furniture Louisville, The Kentucky Center for African American Heritage, Portland Museum, Chestnut & Pearls, & the Louisville Visitor’s Center.  She was commissioned with 35 women to illustrate the “Bluegrass Bold: Stories of Kentucky Women” children’s book in 2021.  Her work has been purchased to hang in the Novak Children’s Hospital, Play Cousin’s Collective, Presbyterian Church Corporate office, Scotland Healthcare System, and Cabbage Patch House. Tomisha has collaborated with other organizations to offer art instruction at Norton West Hospital (2026), Elev8 (2025-26), Sowing Seeds for Faith (2025-26), the Catholic Enrichment Center (2025-26), Louisville Free Public Library (2026), Eastern High School (2022), Jefferson County Youth Detention Center (2019-2020), Fund for the Arts Cultural Pass (2021-2026), and the Louisville Tourism at the Muhammad Ali Center (Live Painter, 2022). She was also invited to collaborate with the Louisville Visual Art’s Association & Instructure’s Art in Motion Studio Intensive to teach a high school oil painting class (2026).  Tomisha resides and works in Louisville, Kentucky, with her husband and children, and offers weekly art instruction in her studio.

“It is a necessity that I create and I am very excited to the opportunities I have in the future to doing more.  I have been given this small gift for a purpose and am thus compelled to use it and share with others.  By doing so I am honoring the gift and the Giver. So whether through paint or pencil, perfection or error, may my art inspire and impart joy to you.”

-Tomisha Lovely-Allen