Ali Cavanaugh is an internationally recognized American painter known for her distinctive approach to Modern Fresco Painting. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, she earned her BFA from Kendall College of Art and Design in 1995 and completed a residency at the New York Studio Residency Program.
After moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2001, Cavanaugh developed her signature modern fresco process, layering watercolor pigment onto kaolin clay to create luminous, highly detailed figurative paintings.
Cavanaugh’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including in New York, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Barcelona, and London. Her paintings have appeared on numerous magazine and book covers, and her work has been widely featured in prominent print and online publications.
She has received many honors, including Signature Status with the Portrait Society of America. Her work has also been the subject of museum exhibitions at the Ellen Noël Art Museum and Marietta Cobb Museum of Art.
Her portraiture has attracted distinguished commissions and collectors. She was commissioned by TIME magazine to paint Taylor Swift and by The New York Times to create a portrait of legendary Mexican singer Chavela Vargas. Her work has also entered the collections of notable figures, including Gene Hackman and Cher.
Cavanaugh has also developed notable collaborations within the watercolor industry, partnering with Golden Artist Colors on a collaborative portrait watercolor color set and with renowned Barcelona-based brushmaker Escoda Brushes on the Ali Cavanaugh Signature Brush Set.
In 2019, Unicorn Publishing released Modern Fresco Paintings, a career retrospective of her work. That same year, Cavanaugh founded the Aligator Watercolor Community, an international community through which she teaches, mentors, and encourages artists to work in modern watercolor techniques.
Today, Cavanaugh continues to paint and mentor while expanding her practice into larger-scale public space commissions, bringing her distinctive approach to Modern Fresco Painting into new architectural and communal settings.