Alexis Averbuck was born in Oakland, California and is a painter and travel writer. Averbuck graduated from Harvard University earning a B.A. cum laude. From an early age Averbuck traveled widely, living in Europe, Hong Kong, India, and Sri Lanka. At the beginning of her career she concentrated exclusively on travel writing – publishing books on Mexico, Central America, Rome, and Southeast Asia.

In 1995, Averbuck's focus changed during a seminal year spent at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Inspired by the magnificent natural environment and the unique solitude, Averbuck turned to the visual arts. After 'the Ice,' Averbuck apprenticed with artists in India, Amsterdam, New York and New Orleans and on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona. She worked with watercolor, glass blowing and casting, printmaking and acrylics. Averbuck found that painting with mixed media and acrylic combined the immediacy of watercolor with the textures of glass and intaglio print. Her first exhibition was in 2002.

In 2005, Averbuck sailed across the Pacific Ocean from Costa Rica to the Marquesas Islands; this catalyzed her work on color-infused skyscapes, which are the basis for her Pacific series. 

Averbuck settled in Hydra, Greece in 2007. Always inspired by landscape, she found that painting with oils and mixed media captures the specific luster of the island's colors and moods. Since then she has had two solo exhibitions and is currently an author for Lonely Planet, specializing in Greece and France.