LONDON.- Bobbie Russon creates bold and moving depictions of predominately female figures, mapping a path of loss, awkward self-awareness and developing sexuality; she communicates her excruciating shyness as a child and the acute loneliness she felt.

The subjects in her paintings are most often female as she draws on her own emotion and experience, “I suppose I use girls in my work, simply because that is what I know. I work quite intuitively, and the imagery and themes come from my own personal experience, feelings and memories, both as an only child to a single mother and as a mother to my two daughters and son. However, while I paint from a female perspective, the themes in the work are more generally about being human”.

Russon’s paintings are charged with the unspoken curiosities within the young girls that they often depict – girls on the brink of becoming adults facing impending independence, the cultivation of a personality, tastes, opinions, thoughts…these children are about to leap into the world of adulthood and appear both vulnerable and brave. “My main source of reference is the ability to allow something from within to emerge as an image in my mind’s eye. I then try to capture that image / feeling on canvas. It inevitably changes and evolves in the process, which is an element of painting I really enjoy.”

Dolls or animals rather than other humans sometimes feature alongside the paintings’ subjects, offering their ability to engage and bring companionship yet bringing no guidance or understanding of the subject’s journey to adulthood; whilst the earthy colours and dingy interiors these characters inhabit would not be out of place in a Tim Burton book illustration, “The colours I use help me to express something of the way it feels to grow up in here in Britain. From the bleak, muted winter landscape to the grimy city with its imposing buildings of deep red brick and variations of grey concrete. I often paint girls confined to these dingy rooms with the light emanating from a small window, hinting at the outside world and all its possibilities. In this sense, I suppose I use colour and tone as a metaphor’.

Bobbie Russon's paintings speak to the quiet, contemplative and solitary place in all of us. More as a metaphor for humanity than a literal interpretation, her work speaks to us on an emotional level, giving us time to stand still and reflect on what it means to be human.

Bobbie Russon was born in Birmingham and received her MA at the Royal College of Art and her BA at Central St Martin’s in London. She now works from her studio in South West London. Recent years have shown an increased interest and demand in Russon’s work, with sell out shows and inclusion in many private collections and her recent works have culminated in a series of miniatures, framed in beautifully handcrafted solid wood frames.