Louis Risoli was born in 1952 in Ashland, MA, and grew up in the same house where his studio is now located. A son of Italian immigrants, he spent his childhood in the woods, building forts and learning about its flora and fauna. When he was in third grade, an older cousin gifted him an oil paint set and taught him how to use it, which catalyzed his interest in art.

Risoli pursued Asian Studies at Tufts University. He spent a semester abroad in Hong Kong and was able to travel to Thailand, India, and Burma, expanding his lifelong interest in Asian art. Following graduation in 1974, he briefly studied landscape design before enrolling in evening painting classes at the Museum School. Risoli created a unique pictorial vocabulary that symbolized awakening and a world of expanding possibilities and was inspired, in part, by the Pattern and Decoration movement. Thick paint application and inclusion of industrial materials were characteristic of his early work. 

Risoli describes himself as a process painter. He has always worked in series, oftentimes spanning decades. He developed his own protocol for the use of patterns that relied on chance to determine the shape, placement, and color choices, which continues to influence his landscape painting. In the 1980s, he returned to figuration, creating his Bodybuilder series, which explored men as hypersexualized objects, presenting a contrast to the classical treatment of the female body as the objectified subject. The headless male subjects later transformed into a sort of abstract self-portraits, the finished paintings bearing approximate dimensions of Risoli's body, with canvases stretched over deep, sometimes rounded sidebars, lending physicality to the work. This led to the shaped canvas series of the 1990s. 

In 2009, during a family visit to Los Alamos, New Mexico, Risoli first considered painting a landscape as an academic exercise. In 2017, following a heart attack, he created a series of abstract works that referenced veins and arteries, initially tumultuous and later, considerate and quiet. A year later, he created his first plein air drawings in oil pastel, a body of work that allowed for gestural freedom. That series led to an exploration of landscapes set alongside abstract forms and, more recently, entirely figurative works. He paints his landscapes based on photographs he takes in places near his home, which feel both familiar and different with each season. Risoli cannot paint without music, and in his words, the playing of his husband Charlie, who is a classical pianist, provides the backdrop to his entire life. 

Outside of his studio, Risoli loves birdwatching, reading, practicing yoga, gardening, and spending time in the woods. His work is part of many public and corporate collections, including the Ashland Public Library, the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, the Rose Art Museum, and Meditech.