Artist who in 1986 fled South Africa, where she grew up, owing to political unrest and worsening violence. She was taught by Paula Rego at Byam Shaw School of Art, “influenced by her surreal juxtapositions”, and by Christopher Le Brun at the Royal Academy Schools, “taking on his Neo-Romanticism.” The mix of these two disciplines created a distinctive style in which, according to Dwell magazine, “jutting angles and soaring rooflines are set against layers upon layers of pastel hillsides and trees that rise to the top of the picture plane.” In 2000 Kissell was able to use Anish Kapoor’s beach hut in Martha’s Vineyard, in America, to study nature and create paintings with a delicate balance between surface modulation and illusionist depth.