Aliisa was born in 1957 of Finnish / Scottish parentage and has drawn on
folk-lore and childhood memories of visits to relatives in the forests of south
east Finland. The Finnish strength of character and silent fortitude come across
in her paintings, as does the stillness of the seasons. ‘I’m drawn to the
melencholy, the darker side, sometimes pictures like music, express things that
cannot be expressed in words’.
She studied at art school in Portsmouth, obtaining a BA Hons in Fine Art (Drawing and Painting) in 1981. Since then she has lived and worked in Edinburgh, developing her own unique style of figurative painting. She does not use models; her inspiration is her imagination and experience. She paints “a world somewhere between reality and imagination.” Her figures are always large but Aliisa does not see them as fat. “I draw and paint intuitively, and I like large shapes and curves. I think perhaps it is because these images are about the soul, which is immense and boundless.”
Her paintings touch people with their particular mix of joy and melancholy. Feelings, moods and emotions are portrayed in poetic imagery, and in a dream-like way, are visual expressions of a deeper experience.
Aliisa has been exhibiting her work throughout the UK since 1983 with much success in many solo and group shows throughout this country and abroad. She is a regular exhibitor at several galleries