ILONA RUSSELL
“Scotland is my main point of inspiration. Being half Scottish I have always felt connected to the vast landscapes, and feel energised by the space and ever changing colours. In spring the fields seem alive with yellow from the rapeseed flowers and in the autumn you can see the most incredible variation in tones scattered across the landscapes peppered with pinks and purples from the heather.”
I start out by studying landscapes, often in Scotland which I visit regularly. I either work from photographs or drawings from my sketchbook or iPad, working them in to paintings that become increasingly abstract as the process goes on and the works take on a life of their own, to me I can always see a truth in the painting from the original landscape but it is not necessarily clear to another eye.
My paintings represent a moment in time and capture a feeling during the act of creation. I play with abstraction, problem-solving through composition, colour selection and line until I feel I have captured what is necessary. This sometimes happens in a few hours, but often will take a few sittings to get some distance from a piece, maybe working on something new, then coming back to resolve and adapt with fresh insight.
Ilona Russell has a degree in Performance Costume from Edinburgh College of Art which influenced her early work. She completed a course in traditional drawing at the London Royal Drawing School in 2015 she went on to set up a painting studio in East London. Exhibitions include the Peanut Vendor in East London, ‘Bright young things’ summer exhibition at Alex Eagle studio, Soho and ‘Camilla Bloom & friends’, Soho.
I work quite quickly and intuitively, working with the paint and letting the materiality of it guide my practice. I like the varied textures I can get from using different brushes and implements too, watering it down and using a coarse brush to create texture, or layering with a pallet knife.