58 Facts About Stella Vine

Stella Vine was born on Melissa Jane Robson, 1969 and is an English artist, who lives and works in London.

Stella Vine's work is figurative painting, with subjects drawn from personal life, as well as from rock stars, royalty, and other celebrities.

Stella Vine was born Melissa Jane Robson in Alnwick, Northumberland, England in 1969.

Stella Vine changed her name to "Stella Vine" in 1995, inspired by Andy Warhol.

Stella Vine's mother remarried when she was seven, and they relocated to Norwich.

Stella Vine lived in the Argyle Street, Norwich squat before being briefly fostered in Brixton, London.

Stella Vine then moved back to Norwich and began to teach herself in the Norwich Reference Library.

Stella Vine moved into a home for single parents and then relocated to London, where Stella Vine joined the National Youth Theatre of Britain in 1983, and the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in 1987.

Stella 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, Stella Vine said that he was still her "soul mate".

For five years Stella 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.

Stella Vine said it was difficult to tour with a small child but earned her Equity Card by performing with Durham Theatre Company.

Stella 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.

Stella Vine remembers seeing "wonderful paintings by Gainsborough" whilst rehearsing at Kenwood House, London.

When Stella Vine was in her early twenties she auditioned for him twice.

Stella Vine 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.

Stella Vine recalled in 2007 that "the candy coloured" room of Gainsborough proved such a rush of excitement that she had to sit down.

Januszczak said that this was the moment Stella Vine "realised how much prettiness was possible in art".

Stella Vine's paintings are the most well documented part of her artistic output.

The themes of Stella Vine's painting focus on memory, nostalgia and fairy tales.

Stella Vine painted her step father, with whom she had a troubled, abusive relationship.

Stella Vine developed a "crush" on artist Billy Childish, and attended his music events; in June 2000, she went to a talk given by him and fellow Stuckist co-founder, Charles Thomson, on Stuckism.

Stella Vine 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.

Stella Vine had a two-month relationship with Thomson and they married on 8 August 2001 in New York.

Stella Vine said she found much of her art education through the Serpentine Gallery bookshop and became involved with East London artist-run galleries.

In 2003, Stella Vine opened the Rosy Wilde gallery on Whitecross Street in east London, as a space that held exhibitions of contemporary art by emerging artists.

Stella 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 Stella 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, Stella Vine was able to pay the gallery bills.

In mid 2004 Stella Vine moved to Spain and the gallery was sold at auction.

Art collector Charles Saatchi discovered Stella Vine's painting in a show called Girl on Girl in Cathy Lomax's Transition Gallery.

Stella Vine painted as many as 30 of Diana alone, having become fascinated by conspiracy theories into the Princess' tragic car crash which she had read on the Internet.

Stella Vine destroyed many of these paintings soon after they were created.

Stella Vine put them all, apart from one, in a skip as she did not have enough space to dry nor store the wet paintings.

In February 2004, after Stella Vine "rose to fame after being championed by Charles Saatchi", her ex-husband Charles Thomson said that it was he and the Stuckists, not Saatchi, who had "discovered" Stella Vine.

In September 2004, Stella Vine threatened suicide if her work was included in The Stuckists Punk Victorian show at the Liverpool Biennial; the owner of the painting withdrew it.

Stella Vine refused to acquiesce to the parents and police's request not to exhibit the painting, then on view in the Saatchi Gallery in the New Blood show during March 2004.

In June 2004, Stella Vine held her first solo exhibition, Prozac and Private Views, at Transition Gallery, London.

Stella Vine was interviewed about the exhibition by Jenni Murray for the BBC Radio 4 programme Woman's Hour.

In September 2004, Stella Vine went back to her home town of Alnwick, where she donated 3 paintings to the Bailiffgate Museum collection, the local museum.

Stella Vine returned to London's Bloomsbury district, using a local Camera Cafe as her office.

In July 2005, Stella Vine made a painting of the No 30 London bus which had been destroyed by a suicide bomber in Tavistock Square, outside her Bloomsbury flat during the 7 July 2005 London bombings.

Stella Vine painted over the artwork almost as soon as she had made it, as she found the work "simply too disturbing".

Stella Vine documented the bus painting before she re-painted over it, but refuses to show the photographs publicly during her lifetime.

Stella Vine has made a number of large paintings of Kate Moss including Holy water cannot help you now and Kate unfinished.

Stella Vine has created art installations and sculpture using found objects.

In 2006, Vine launched Stellacam, which ran all day, every day for a 3-month period, enabling fans to watch her painting at her Bloomsbury studio and home.

In September and October 2006, Stella Vine exhibited a solo show The Waltz at the Museum of New Art in Detroit.

Rather than a regular exhibition, Stella Vine painted a large-scale mural across the museum space over a period of five days.

The "live painting performance" was filmed and later exhibited alongside the stacked mural as a six-channel video installation showing Stella Vine creating the mural.

From July to September 2007, a major solo show of Stella Vine's work was held at Modern Art Oxford.

Stella Vine hoped these new works would show Diana's combined strength and vulnerability as well as her close relationship with her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.

Stella Vine declared a strong connection to Warhol, having studied his work in depth on an art course.

In July 2007, Stella Vine collaborated with Topshop clothing chain, creating a limited edition fashion range inspired by her artworks.

In November 2008, it was announced that Stella Vine had begun painting a series of new work for a large solo show at the Eden Project, Cornwall, England to be held in 2010.

In 2005, Stella Vine gave three paintings to the Imagine A World exhibition, organised by Amnesty International.

In 2008, Stella Vine created the painting Didier, depicting Didier Drogba, for the charity Sport Relief.

Stella Vine allowed them to create a limited edition print of Didier to help raise further funds for the charity.