Anna-Maija Rissanen was born in 1983 in Järvenpää, Finland, and has been living in Belgium since 1995, with regular trips back to Finland since 2009. She graduated from the Royal Fine-Arts Academy of Brussels in 2009 with a Master of Arts (with Distinction) and also qualified as an art teacher.
As a painter she focuses mainly on painting inner landscapes, water and rock, bordering on the abstract. In her paintings Anna-Maija Rissanen uses mixed media including watercolour, acrylics, Indian ink and collage on canvas or on paper, amongst others.
In 2009 she won the first prize at the Godecharle art contest for young painters, architects and sculptors. The grant awarded by the Godecharle foundation is giving her the opportunity to continue her studies at the China Academy of Arts of Hangzhou in 2012. Later on in 2019 she pursued PhD studies in art at Shanghai Academy of Arts. Between 2009 and 2020 she has exhibited internationally in over 40 group shows and had about 20 solo shows.