Girl in red, oil on canvas, 40/50cm 16/20 inch, 2014
The Girl in red,
I painted my model and friend Nina. I chose her because of her incredibly intense gaze. However, this painting is not about a particular person. I was inspired by the work „Negress” painted by Anna Bilińska in 1884. This image after a tumultuous fate retrieved in Poland in 2012. A woman painted is shown slightly from the bottom as if frightened. For a long time, for some reason I could not stopped thinking about this work. I was thinking about women then and what they are now. Women now are still beautiful and sensitive, but they are also strong, brave, free, ambitious and passionate. We are like a fire, that tamed easily put out, but unrestricted can devour entire forests, and at the same time we are as the water which is supposed to be calm but could bore, and crush rocks. We are still emotional but this is no longer a disadvantage but our strength. Our defects make us true beautiful. My woman in red has a blemish on her shoulder but the flaw is what makes her perfect. Twenty-first century is the time when women just realised that they are strong.
Selected for the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery 26 June – 21 September 2014. The exhibition will then go on tour, where it will be shown at Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens (4 October – 16 November 2014) and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (27 November – 12 April 2015).
Some photos found in the internet:
