BELFAST — The woman in the painting is looking over her shoulder with an alarmed expression. Julia Alexander, 15, the artist, had a specific person in mind when she painted this.

“That’s Fantine from Les Misérables,” she explains. Fantine is a fictional character in Victor Hugo's 1862 novel Les Misérables. She is a young orphaned grisette in Paris who becomes pregnant by a rich student. After he abandons her, she is forced to look after their child, Cosette, on her own.

“I based this painting off of Celinde Schoenmaker, who played Fantine on the West End,” said Julia. “Fantine is looking back over her shoulder in this image. In the story of Les Mis, Fantine is a young, beautiful woman who has a child, but she finds herself in a bad place, and has no other option but to leave her young daughter with a horrid innkeeper and his wife. I imagine that this painting is of the moment Fantine is looking back over her shoulder at her daughter as she is walking away.”

Homeschooled in Etna, she took some private art lessons in elementary school, but is largely and self-taught. This is just one out of several paintings she’s done of Les Misérables. characters. “It’s was the first show that introduced me to musical theater,” she said.

The painting of the girl with the blue background is of Éponine from Les Mis.

“This is during the ‘On My Own’ scene, in which she is thinking about her unrequited love,” said Julia. “She is walking along the streets at night, shivering in the rain. In the painting, she has just realized that she loves him, but he will never love her.”

The blond man in the red jacket is Enjolras.

“He is the leader of a group of students revolting in the June Rebellion,” said Julia. “This moment is just after the Amis de l’ABC have finished constructing their barricade. Enjolras is still hopeful about the outcome of the rebellion.”

The painting that is split into two sections is of Valjean (top) and Javert (bottom).

“The reason I decided to paint this is because of the similarity in two of the lines these characters sing at the beginning and end of the musical. Valjean, the protagonist, sings, ‘Another story must begin.’ He knows that his life is basically at rock bottom and he needs to change. And that’s what he does. Javert echoes the same melody line just before he commits suicide at the end of the show. ‘There is no way to go on.’ The contrast between the characters in just those two lines really struck me, so I did what any artist would do — I created a painting!”

Talented on multiple levels, Julia is also into music and acting. She’s currently auditioning for some plays in Bangor, Belfast and in Brooks at at Marsh River Theater.

“I definitely would like to do more paintings of characters from musical theatre,” she said. “Right now, I have some ideas brewing in my head for paintings of characters from Hamilton (a new rap/hip hop musical about the founding fathers, mainly Alexander Hamilton). I'm really excited to get them on canvases.”

Julia Alexander’s Fantine piece originally appeared in a student show hanging in Waterfall Arts in Belfast.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com