Marissa studied at Edinburgh University on a combined MA Fine Art course in History of Art and Painting. She is currently doing a masters in painting at the Royal College of Art.

Marissa also teaches Expressive Landscape Painting at The Art Club Edinburgh, and runs her own workshops called ‘Foraging for Colour’ with Falkirk Community Trust, Great Place Scotland, Tweed River Culture (Connecting Threads), and at LSA. These workshops have been designed to connect people to the stories of native plants, their colours, and practical uses.

Her practice centres on art and ecology which draws close connections to arts and crafts as well as science, history, myth, and folklore. She has received several awards for painting and has attended residencies funded by Creative Scotland to study in Finland and received The Visual Art Makers Award to attend an ecological residency in Peru’s Amazon jungle.