Résumé
Fiona Russell is an Edinburgh-based artist who loves to explore the relationship between strong sunlight and shadows. Largely self-taught, she has been drawing and painting all of her life. Over a number of years she has also undertaken several evening courses and workshops in London and Edinburgh, most recently at Edinburgh College of Art and Leith School of Art.
Her work is inspired by the light and colours that are typical of the Mediterranean. The bright sunlight and deep shadows create a strong contrast, yet evoke a peaceful balance: one cannot exist without the other, and Fiona seeks to capture something of this relationship.
She is attracted by the strong use of colour in the post-impressionist and expressionist work of artists such as Vincent Van Gogh, the Scottish Colourists, Anne Redpath, John Lowrie Morrison, and contemporary Dutch painter Jeroen Krabbé.
She prefers to work in oil paint, the wonderful consistency of this medium lending itself to a varied application, allowing for diversity in texture and expression.
Fiona wishes to maintain a realism in her paintings whilst experimenting with the use of contrasting and complimentary colours, changing and enhancing them to develop a more emotional expression of the subject, and conveying a sense of the warmth and tranquility of the Mediterranean villages and towns. Her subjects are drawn from a variety of areas including Provence, Venice, Tuscany, Malta and California.