Empowering the Female Gaze

By Christine Giraud

“If you know that moment in the film, if something in your life is echoed by that fictional space, then you have much more connection with the painting.” Josie McCoy

The ebullient Josie McCoy, 54, an award-winning artist from the U.K., is currently working on a new series of paintings tentatively called “The Female Gaze.”

Like her past work, she focuses on female empowerment, but for this series, she has selected close-ups of characters from more international and diverse films like Hidden Figures, Lady Bird, The Cable Girls, and Little Women.

The close-ups portray the nuances and emotions of the subjects and create a connection with viewers. Soft-lined and hyper-realistic faces capture a moment where something poignant or thought-provoking is happening in the plot.

McCoy works most days at her studio, Sporting Club Russafa, in Valencia, Spain, where she is now based. The large space, originally a boxing gym, bustles with activity.

As visitors milled about the studio gazing at the art, we spoke with McCoy about her vision and process.

The Everyday Female Gaze

Since the start of her career over 24 years ago, McCoy has painted portraits from films that have strong, iconic female characters from popular film and television. “I'm mesmerized by the power these characters hold in the collective psyche.” Her focus on strong women is in response to the way women have been represented as ‘passive’ subjects throughout art history. She presents female characters who are active protagonists with agency and power.

Joi, 60 x 90cm oil on canvas 2018, Part of the Contemporary Icons series

She has a tradition of focusing on popular culture for its greater accessibility. By evoking nostalgia for pop culture, film and TV characters act as a means of communication and connection. For example, in her final exhibition of her master’s degree at Central Saint Martin’s, London in 1999, she painted a series of female characters from her favorite British soap opera that she knew would be familiar to most. “I wanted the viewer to engage with the painted versions of these assertive women in the same way I do.” She was fascinated by how the paintings evoked personal memories and references.

“When looking at a painting of someone we recognize, the line between fiction and reality can become blurred. When more people connect with the character, the shared experience creates a bond.” She emphasizes this connection by hanging her work so that the subjects of the paintings look at each other and the viewer can interact with their gaze. Of course, not all viewers will be able to recognize the actress, the film, or the moment, but McCoy picks stills that can be universally interpreted–a defiant stare, a wistful look, a satisfied smile.

Her work also depends on the viewer’s capacity to fill in visual gaps. Even when a face has no cheekbones, viewers know it’s not flat. We see no nose, but we know the actress has one. Film as a medium is especially conducive to activating this visual literacy because it’s not just the moment that’s captured, but the story before and after.

For uncommissioned work, McCoy finds it essential to paint film moments that she is passionate about. “I can’t force it. You feel like you care so much that you don't want to compromise. It just wouldn't work.” The story has to excite her. This is understandable given that it can take as much as two months to finish one painting.

Penelope Cruz, Raimunda IV, 135 x 135cm oil on canvas 2009-2021, Part of the Contemporary Icons series

Being an immigrant to Spain, she has less knowledge of and nostalgia for Spanish films than most Spaniards. This knowledge gap will take time to fill, but she is interested. When she does draw moments from Spanish films, her work is well-received. She exhibited paintings of Pedro Almodovar's films and, in appreciation of her work, he sent her a thank you card.

Artist Technique

Her technique involves applying many layers to the canvas. She uses a range of brush sizes–tiny brushes for the features, mid-sized brushes for the hair–to get the soft lines. The key is blending the surface and creating a soft edge. One big challenge is to achieve precision when moving and pushing the paint just applied. Each layer is transforming the layer above and below it.

She recently discovered that it's not just the faces she’s fascinated by, but the notion of painting light. This revelation came from the multi-step process she uses.

Each of her paintings begins with a film still, which is projected onto the canvas, and then meticulously painted. She aims to create a conversation between old master techniques, contemporary photography, and cinema. “The making reflects the psychological projection of our desires onto the subject.”

Light is significant throughout the process, from source film still to color palette. By using oil paint as if it’s watercolor to build her portraits in thin layers of diluted paint, the surfaces of the paintings glow in an imitation of the cinema screen. She uses a green skin color to reference traditional painting techniques, which gives luminosity to the flesh tone. She also uses pale blue, to imply the gleam of a television on the viewer.

The work explores the relationship between painting and film, trying to capture, as Roland Barthes says in Mythologies, "that moment in cinema when capturing the human face still plunged audiences into the deepest ecstasy." Says McCoy, “I want the viewer to lose themselves in the complexity and emotion of the human face.”

Sporting Club Russafa

McCoy is based in Valencia, Spain, and is still building new connections in this art-loving city, a slow process. Being a member of the studio Sporting Club Russafa, a major art hub in Valencia, has cemented her tie with Valencia’s art community.

She is surrounded by high-caliber artists from various nationalities, some of the best in the city, and she finds their talent and support inspiring. “I love it. I love the cooperative nature of it.”

Read what others say about McCoy’s art.

Biography of Josie McCoy

Josie McCoy graduated from the MA Fine Art course at Central Saint Martin’s, London, in 1999.

Recent individual exhibitions include ‘Muses, Mothers, Magicians and Murderers’ at Centro Cultural Melchor Zapata, Benicássim (2021) and ‘The Muses of Josie McCoy’ at Sala de Exposiciones El Oscurico in Buñol Castle, Spain (2021).

McCoy has also participated in numerous group shows worldwide, in the UK, Europe, South America, and the U.S, recently in Dirty Pink at Il Conventino, Florence (2022), and A Generous Space 3 at Huddersfield Art Gallery, Huddersfield (2023).

Her paintings have been selected for the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London four times and she was shortlisted for the Castellon International Painting Prize in Spain. She was awarded first prize for the Centre of Attention Painting Prize and received a Woo Charitable Foundation Arts Bursary.

McCoy’s paintings are included in private and public collections including the BBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Collection of the University of Wales, The Centre of Attention Permanent Collection, Jeremy Mogford Collection, Borchard Collection of British Self-Portraits in the 20th Century, and the Ofelia Martín & Javier Núñez Collection.

Contact Josie McCoy:

Website: www.josiemccoy.co.uk

Email: josie@josiemccoy.co.uk

Instagram: @josiemccoyart

Facebook @josiemccoyartist and josiemccoyart https://www.facebook.com/josiemccoy