Irina Matos Wilmot was born in Angola during the war of Independence, and raised by her grandmother in Portugal.
The holidays spent in Angola with her father and family where influential to her love of Art, as she has early memories of working alongside her father, who was painter and sculptor as well as founding member of the Angolan artists Union .He also fuelled a love of reflecting about society and writing.
The love of nature was a gift from her paternal uncle, a botanical engineer. They would take long walks and he would name plants and explain their requirements.
Currently living in Ireland she finds inspiration in the landscape and her garden.
Her work so far as been influenced by identity issues, the environment, attempting to understand her role in life . As such it was only natural that she should turn to art as a way to process and find comfort from profound personal losses, the subject of her ongoing work.