My Story
Mallo Bisset might have taken the long road to living her dream, but once she sets her mind on something, there’s nothing stopping her. As a little girl living on the Åland Islands in the Finnish archipelago, she wasn’t too fond of school, and told everyone “I am going to be an artist when I grow up”. Life got in the way for a while, but after years of hard work and building a successful business, it wasn’t until 2007 with encouragement from her husband and daughter that Mallo finally took the time to do what she had always dreamed of doing. It started with a weekly drawing class at the local Adult Education program. After just two semesters her teacher, Helen Terry, told her she could make money drawing pet portraits. Mallo’s earliest work combined her love of animals with her love for the arts. Having tried drawing, pastels, and watercolors, it was time for oils! She signed up for classes at a studio which was located across the street from her own business, so she could be close to work, yet make it easy to get to class every week. This is where her love affair with oils and the palette knife began. Under the tutelage of Georgia Abood at Alizarin Crimson, she has been working on her craft and has made remarkable progress in such a short time. Having grown up on an island, and living in Florida for 30 years, with a second home in the Bahamas, it’s not a surprise that Mallo Bisset’s work often features the water and always celebrates the beauty of nature. As it turns out, that little girl in Finland really did grow up to be an artist!