Marisa Willoughby-Holland is a Jamaican-born artist whose paintings explore memory, identity, motherhood, loss and the fragile relationship between the natural world and the human psyche.
Working primarily in oil, Marisa creates richly imagined landscapes and interiors that draw on her Jamaican childhood, her life in Britain and the shifting space between the two. Her paintings often combine recognisable elements of the Caribbean landscape with invented spaces, domestic interiors and dreamlike figures, creating worlds in which memory and imagination become inseparable.
A recurring cast of birds, flowers, plants, skeletons and other symbolic forms runs throughout her work. These motifs operate as a personal visual language, connecting the present to childhood memories and family histories. Ginger lilies, for example, recall her father's garden in Jamaica, while Jamaican and English birds appear together as markers of her dual cultural identity. Light, particularly lanterns, sunsets and moonlight becomes a recurring presence, offering warmth and the possibility of hope within otherwise psychologically charged environments.
Her figures frequently inhabit spaces that are simultaneously beautiful and unsettling. Dense vegetation can become overwhelming; domestic objects can carry memories of vulnerability and loss; and seemingly idyllic Caribbean environments may contain signs of anxiety, mortality or destruction.
Across her practice, Marisa creates a world where the autobiographical and the imagined continually overlap. Her paintings hold beauty and unease together, using the language of symbolism to explore what is remembered, what is lost, and what might survive.
The Royal College of Art
MA Illustration
1999 to 2001
Camberwell College of Art
BA Honours Graphic Design
1995 to 1998
Chelsea College of Art
Art and Design Foundation Course
1993 to 1994
Working primarily in oil, Marisa creates richly imagined landscapes and interiors that draw on her Jamaican childhood, her life in Britain and the shifting space between the two. Her paintings often combine recognisable elements of the Caribbean landscape with invented spaces, domestic interiors and dreamlike figures, creating worlds in which memory and imagination become inseparable.
A recurring cast of birds, flowers, plants, skeletons and other symbolic forms runs throughout her work. These motifs operate as a personal visual language, connecting the present to childhood memories and family histories. Ginger lilies, for example, recall her father's garden in Jamaica, while Jamaican and English birds appear together as markers of her dual cultural identity. Light, particularly lanterns, sunsets and moonlight becomes a recurring presence, offering warmth and the possibility of hope within otherwise psychologically charged environments.
Her figures frequently inhabit spaces that are simultaneously beautiful and unsettling. Dense vegetation can become overwhelming; domestic objects can carry memories of vulnerability and loss; and seemingly idyllic Caribbean environments may contain signs of anxiety, mortality or destruction.
Across her practice, Marisa creates a world where the autobiographical and the imagined continually overlap. Her paintings hold beauty and unease together, using the language of symbolism to explore what is remembered, what is lost, and what might survive.
The Royal College of Art
MA Illustration
1999 to 2001
Camberwell College of Art
BA Honours Graphic Design
1995 to 1998
Chelsea College of Art
Art and Design Foundation Course
1993 to 1994