Lissy’s life has been shaped by her love of the sea. From an early age her summers were spent living in a beach hut in Dorset; days were whiled away fishing for mackerel, diving down to the mussel beds, snorkelling over the migrating spider crabs and trying to spot flat fish on the sandy sea floor. She has now made her home on one of the most beautiful stretches of coast in South Devon.

Following her BA (Hons) Art with Related Arts degree Lissy spent a few years travelling and working overseas where she established a passion for conservation. Her freediving journey began in 2009 after a holiday to Cape Verde where she watched a local boy dive down to untangle a boat’s anchor, frustrated at not being able to dive as deep as he had she returned home and began researching breath hold. Lissy gained her first freediving qualification shortly after and spent the next few years advancing her skills and then working as an Assistant Freedive Instructor and Mermaid Instructor as well as carrying out marine conservation work.

During this time her art had became a hobby confined to sketch books and journals but in 2017 El Sea Mar Art was born and she began selling cards and prints of the pen and ink sea creatures she’d interacted with whilst diving. Lissy uses fine liner pens and a technique referred to as dot work and although there is a scientific illustration element to her drawing what she tries to convey is how the creatures move and interact with a diver underwater.

In contrast to her pen and ink drawings Lissy enjoys the polarity of working with fabric and stitch to create colour and texture. Her textile pieces are a tribute to the many golden sandy beaches, turquoise seas and deep blue oceans she has enjoyed around the world post dive.