Growing up in a family of fearless and high-achieving women, she describes herself as “a natural feminist. It wasn’t even a question for me”. She could take her pick from role models, such as her two great aunts (Eleanor, one of the first female bosses in the UK who worked in the male-dominated gas industry, and Trubody, who was a spy and a member of MI6 with a Bronze Star award for bravery). But, when it came to finding role models in the art world, Kevans wasn’t exactly overloaded with options – something which she believes needs to change.
 
“When I heard that there were female Impressionist artists, I assumed they weren’t that good, and that’s why they weren’t as well-known. I felt cheated – I hadn’t been taught about them at college, and there were hardly any books about them.” She cites Cecilia Beaux as an example – ” she was one of the top three artists in the US during the 1900s, along with John Singer Sargent”. I then have to admit that, despite being an art graduate, I’ve never heard of Beaux; it definitely feels like there’s only room for a small quotient of women artists on the curriculum and in our galleries when women like Beaux can so easily fall under the radar. As for Kevans herself, she’s been called ‘the next Tracey Emin’ yet, while both women make controversial art and are extremely talented, you could hardly confuse Kevans’ vivid oil portraits with Emin’s verbose blankets and scrawled prints. “My work isn’t like Tracey’s at all,” she says. Perhaps if women artists were less of a novelty then we could compare them more accurately with each other. Luckily, it’s the topic of the paintings she’s currently working on, called History of Art.