Sara Lee was born in Dallas, Texas in 1968. She graduated Texas State University (formerly Southwest Texas State University) with a degree in theatrical design. After college she moved to the east coast working as a scenic painter for television, film and theater. In 1995 she began studies in classical drawing and painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where she earned a certificate in painting and printmaking. While exhibiting and teaching in and around the Philadelphia area, she began to explore her father’s story and family heritage in drawings. In 2003 she received a fellowship to the Vermont Studio to develop some of these drawings into large-scale paintings. Shortly after, she moved to New York and earned her Masters in Painting from Pratt Institute. Sustaining herself through scenic painting and teaching, her work brought her back to Texas in 2008.

Sara Lee draws inspiration from the representational painters Antonio Lopez Garcia, Bo Bartlett, Andrew Wyeth , the magic realism of Frida Kahlo and the varied works of William Kentridge. Her background in theatre and film has remained an important influence as she continues to explore and develop the themes of connection, family, loss, balance and relationship in her work.

Sara Lee lives and works in Central Texas with her husband Michael and their daughter Marlowe.