Molly Bythell is a bold, feminist painter. Whose favourite colour is not pink.

Molly Bythell is obsessed with women. Her brushstrokes just follow.

I know this because, well, she said it. “I am obsessed with women, they tantalise me. The subject of women is so important.”

Molly works out of a basement studio in Hereford with a lovely radiator. She works on sketches from her own travel pics and old National Geographics, she works from candid photos of friends, and she works relentlessly on the colour and composition of her characters, from their grey-haired, winter-coated embraces to their toothless smiles and #thicc thighs.

“Because I take so long on creating [these characters’] form and pazaz I get to know them, their passions, styles and insecurities. Traditionally in painting or sculpture, representations of women have been that of a passive, receiver of the male gaze and I am trying to challenge that.

“I don’t think I can change the world though, just be conscious of it.”

It’s the kind of work that, perhaps, only a 23-year-old could have made. Or specifically a 23-year-old artist who was 17 when Everyday Sexism started and 21 when the Harvey Weinstein accusations made the front pages. The paintings are of a world where we frequently miscast women, if not about that world.

You are most likely to have seen them at her recent solo show at De Koffie Pot in Hereford as part of h.Art, or at last year’s Federation of British Artists Futures showcase.

A Fine Art grad from Newcastle via Maramara University in Istanbul, and with the footloose childhood of an Army family, Hereford may not be forever but for right now it’s where she’s hanging her hat, placing her oil paints and deconstructing the male gaze. One pink flamingo lilo at a time.

Read the full interview with Molly Bythell here.