Stella Vine (born Melissa Jane Robson, 1969) is an English artist, who lives and works in London. Her work is figurative painting, with subjects drawn from personal life, as well as from rock stars, royalty, and other celebrities.

In 2001, she was exhibited by the Stuckists group, which she joined for a short time; she was married briefly to the group co-founder, Charles Thomson.

In 2003, she opened her own gallery Rosy Wilde in East London. In 2004, Charles Saatchi bought Hi Paul can you come over I'm really frightened (2003), a painting of Diana, Princess of Wales, which provoked media controversy, as did a subsequent purchase of a painting of drug victim Rachel Whitear.

Later work has featured Kate Moss as a subject, as in Holy water cannot help you now (2005). In 2006, she re-opened her gallery in Soho, London.

The first major show of her work was held in 2007 at Modern Art Oxford. In the same year, Vine designed clothing for Topshop.

Early life

Stella Vine was born Melissa Jane Robson in Alnwick, Northumberland, England in 1969. She changed her name to "Stella Vine" in 1995, inspired by Andy Warhol.Vine, Stella. "Girlcrush", Stella Vine blog, 8 March 2006. Retrieved 21 April 2006. Vine lived with her mother, a seamstress, and her grandmother, a secretary. Her mother remarried when she was seven, and they relocated to Norwich. Vine said she was "making things and performing music and plays, as far back as I can remember.""Stella Vine biog" , stellavine.com. Retrieved 9 December 2008. When she was a child, she used to make water colours in the library, painting Queen Victoria, and copying the Pre-Raphaelites and Greek Mythology.

Prompted by a difficult relationship with her stepfather, Vine left home at 13 and lived in the Argyle Street, Norwich squat before being briefly fostered in Brixton, London. Vine then moved back to Norwich and began to teach herself in the Norwich Reference Library. Vine's first job was at age 14 in a local Norwich cake shop. During this time, she entered a relationship with a 24-year-old caretaker, and, at the age of 17, gave birth to a son, Jamie.Billen, Andrew. "I Made More Money As A Stripper...", 15 June 2004. Retrieved 9 December 2008. Vine moved into a home for single parents and then relocated to London, where Vine joined the National Youth Theatre of Britain in 1983, and the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in 1987.

Vine lived with musician Ross Newell, "the love of her life" for over four years, but "stupidly" left him for another relationship; two years later she wanted to restart the relationship with Newell, but he no longer trusted her. In 2004, by which time Newell was settled in a marriage with children, Vine said that he was still her "soul mate"."Debt, Diana and homesickness" The Journal, 8 June 2004. Retrieved 10 December 2008 Describing how she decided to become an artist and what inspired her, Vine said a "wonderful ex-boyfriend" called Ross had always told her she should become a painter, and that she had always made "crazy doodles".

Career

Early work For five years Vine performed as an actress, touring provincial theatres around the United Kingdom, as well as running her own improvised theatre company, Minx Productions, and playing with her band, Victoria Falls. Vine said it was difficult to tour with a small child but earned her Equity Card by performing with Durham Theatre Company. Amongst other roles, she played Barclay in Joe Orton's What The Butler Saw at Theatre Clwyd, The National Theatre of Wales: she was a fan of Orton, whom she discovered at drama school. Vine said she would wake up early and dance to songs by PJ Harvey before improvising around her character to prepare for each day's rehearsals. Vine remembers seeing "wonderful paintings by Gainsborough" whilst rehearsing at Kenwood House, London. In the late 1980s, Vine met the film director Mike Leigh. After seeing Leigh's film Meantime (1983), it became her ambition to direct and act in improvised films. When Vine was in her early twenties she auditioned for him twice.

In 1995, she abandoned her ambitions to be an actress and became a hostess in a Mayfair club, where most of the activity was talking, often to elderly men, and "Any negotiation for sexual favours, or your time, or conversation, was very old-fashioned. Very English". Using the name "Stella Vine", she became a lap dancer. She worked as a stripper at Miranda's and later at the Windmill Club in Soho to pay the rent, whilst living with her son in bedsits. One man she met, whom she described as a "sugar daddy" and with whom she was still in contact in 2007, looked after her for six years, and in 1998 took her to New York, where he introduced her to the Frick Collection. She recalled in 2007 that "the candy coloured" room of Gainsborough proved such a rush of excitement that she had to sit down.Vine, Stella. "My life in glorious technicolour" The Guardian, 27 February 2007. Retrieved 24 December 2008. Januszczak said that this was the moment Vine "realised how much prettiness was possible in art".

Painting

Vine's paintings are the most well documented part of her artistic output. She paints in both oil and acrylic with "trademark drips of paint falling from the lips and chin" of her subjects.Akbar, Arifa. "The Warhol tradition: The Many Faces of Stella Vine", "The Independent", 17 July 2007. Retrieved 10 December 2008. The themes of Vine's painting focus on memory, nostalgia and fairy tales.Stella Vine at Modern Art Oxford, Saatchi Online, 29 June 2007. Retrieved 2 February 2009. Vine frequently draws inspiration from her private life, painting from photographs and her memory."Stella Vine: Paintings" , Modern Art Oxford. Retrieved 8 December 2008. The theme of autobiographyMy Interview with Stella Vine: Rapid Growth, Stella Vine Crosses Over Detroit, 13 September 2006. Retrieved 11 January 2009. first surfaced in Vine's early paintings, created whilst she studied at Hampstead School of Art in the early 2000s. Vine painted her step father, with whom she had a troubled, abusive relationship.Eyre, Hermione. "Completing my new show was the only thing that saved me from suicide", 15 July 2007. Retrieved 9 December 2008.

Vine developed a "crush" on artist Billy Childish, and attended his music events;Januszczak, Waldemar. "The Paint Stripper", The Sunday Times, 10 June 2007. Retrieved 12 December 2008. in June 2000, she went to a talk given by him and fellow Stuckist co-founder, Charles Thomson, on Stuckism. She met Thomson on 30 May 2001 at the Vote Stuckist show in Brixton, where she exhibited some of her paintings publicly for the first time in the show and formed The Westminster Stuckists group.Thomson, Charles (August 2004), "A Stuckist on Stuckism: Stella Vine", from: Ed. Frank Milner (2004), The Stuckists Punk Victorian, p. 23, National Museums Liverpool, . Essay text available on line at stuckism.com. On 4 June, she took part in a Stuckist demonstration."Stella Vine the Stuckist in photos", Stuckism. Retrieved 18 December 2008."New sculpture in London's Trafalgar Square", Getty Images, 4 June 2001. Retrieved 6 January 2008. On 10 July, she renamed her group The Unstuckists."Stuckism news: Westminster Stuckists come unstuck", stuckism.com, 10 July 2001. Archived from the original on 9 January 2009."What's on", National Portrait Gallery, August 2007. Retrieved 14 January 2009. In October, there was a Vine painting in the first Stuckist show in Paris.

She had a two-month relationship with Thomson and they married on 8 August 2001 in New York."Trouble and strife", London Evening Standard, p. 12, 20 August 2001. Two days later they had an intense row; she left him and they did not meet again till a week later in London."Trouble and strife", London Evening Standard (London), p. 12, 20 August 2001. They split up after about two months, and were divorced in October 2003.

In March 2004, Vine claimed to have married him because this had been a condition of his paying off her debts of £20,000.Deveney, Catherine. "Stripped bare", Scotland on Sunday, 14 March 2004. Retrieved 30 October 2013. Thomson said that this had been part of a business arrangement to promote themselves as an art couple, and that there had been no condition of marriage.Johnston, Ian. "Former husband of artist Vine denies paying her to marry him", Scotland on Sunday, 21 March 2004. Retrieved 18 December 2008.

In October 2006, The Stuckist group show, Go West, at Spectrum London gallery, included two paintings by Thomson, which were "explicit images of his ex-wife." Vine said she had no comment. "In February 2008, Stuckist artist, Mark D (real name Mark Randall) opened a show of satirical paintings based on Vine's work."Deedes, Henry. "Vine's Stuckist rival sticks one on her at exhibition", 13 February 2008. Retrieved 18 December 2008.

Vine's mother, who had been ill with Crohn's disease, died suddenly from bowel cancerSaner, Emine. "My £600-a-week coke habit just to paint; Controversial artist Stella Vine speaks about the project inspired by Kate Moss that drove her to addiction – and how only the love for her teenage son stopped her from attempting suicide.", London Evening Standard (London), 1 December 2005. Retrieved 18 December 2008. around this time which led to Vine's high creative drive and the creation of her darkest paintings.Saner, Emine. "Why I had to paint Rachel; Her portrait of a heroin addict may be controversial – the police want it withdrawn from the Saatchi Gallery – but for Stella Vine, such work is clearly an expression of her own troubled life.", London Evening Standard (London), 17 March 2004. Retrieved 18 December 2008.

Rosy Wilde Gallery

In 2002 – 2003, Vine studied Philosophical Aesthetics with Johnathan Lahey Dronsfield at Birkbeck College whilst also attending the course Performance After Warhol with Professor Gavin Butt in 2002, and Women's Work with Kathy Battista at Tate Modern. She said she also found much of her art education through the Serpentine Gallery bookshop and became involved with East London artist-run galleries.

In 2003, Vine opened the Rosy Wilde gallery on Whitecross Street in east London, as a space that held exhibitions of contemporary art by emerging artists."Rosy Wilde" , Rosy Wilde. Retrieved 8 December 2008. Vine lived and worked in a studio above the artist-run gallery whilst her son lived in the basement. The gallery was on the verge of bankruptcy, when Charles Saatchi purchased Vine's painting of Diana, Princess of Wales Hi Paul can you come over I'm really frightened. Thanks to the Saatchi purchase and interest in her work, Vine was able to pay the gallery bills. In mid 2004 Vine moved to Spain and the gallery was sold at auction. In 2006, she re-opened her Rosy Wilde gallery, this time in Wardour StreetRosy Wilde in Wardour Street, 2006. Retrieved 7 January 2009. on the first floor above the first Ann Summers sex shop in Soho, London. The gallery closed some years later.

The Saatchi effect