Tovar studied painting with the Catalan artist (then based in Caracas) Ángel Cabré y Magriñá alongside her sister, the painter Elisa Elvira Zuloaga, through private classes arranged by their father in 1916.
Throughout her career, Tovar had an interest in Venezuelan vernacular traditions, which manifested itself in the form of abstract patterns recalling pre-Columbian motifs or religious imagery, such as angels or the Virgin and Child.
For example, from 1949 until her death, Tovar displayed a glazed ceramic crèche in her home on which she added new figures every year.
Aside from explorations with folk imagery, Tovar experimented with materials and familiarized herself with iridescent glazes that gave a metallic appearance to her ceramics.
In 1962, she earned the gold medal at the International Exhibition of Contemporary Ceramics in Prague and in 1965 the silver medal at the Exposition Internationale, les émaux dans la céramique actuelle at the Musée Ariana (Musée suisse de la céramique et du verre) in Geneva.