A collection of quiet heroines.

Approaching these paintings by Serena Curmi you enter a space of calm and quiet, for a moment you are stopped and compelled to gaze. The stillness which holds you is like a caught breath and in this short time you gather a sense of who these girls and women are.

Floating on a muted ground a head and shoulders portrait will reveal a virtue or resilience etched in the features. Full length figures emerge from a minimal background; swathed in lightly painted folds of fabric, faint drawing marks in graphite suggest that they have only just come into being. Their feet lightly touch the ground and an accent of bright colour draws attention to their shoes and to their stance, a balanced poise or diffident step.

Serena’s sensitive, restrained painting allows her females to take form and to engage with the viewer just enough to suggest a story, evoke an atmosphere and for us to feel we can share in their vulnerability and their inner strength.