Damaris Lysaght

Damaris Lysaght grew up in Doneraile, Co Cork. She studied Fine Art for two years in the Crawford Municipal School of Art in Cork and for an additional two years at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. She was awarded an Italian Government Scholarship to continue her painting studies with the renowned teacher of classical painting Nerina Simi. Since those four years in the Simi Studio she has been painting full time. She moved to Ballydehob, West Cork in 2009.

“The natural world, its richness of colours, textures, light effects, moods and atmospheres is what fires my desire to paint. I work outside directly in front of my subject, usually in oils. It is my way of cherishing and being conscious of our planet’s breathtaking but rapidly diminishing bio-diversity. I love living in West Cork, I find it an awe-inspiring land and seascape, still relatively unspoilt. Wonderful wild places still remain but it is distressing how rapidly the natural landscape is disappearing before the JCB and the rock- breaker”.