Stella Vine

Stella Vine (born Melissa Jane Robson, 1969) is an English artist, who lives and works in London. Her work is figurative painting with subject matter drawn from either her personal life of family, friends and school, or rock stars, royalty and celebrities.

After a difficult relationship with her stepfather, she left home and in her teens, had a son, with whom she moved from Northumberland to London. She worked in various jobs, including as a waitress, stripper and cleaner. She joined the NYT (National Youth Theatre of Britain) in 1983, and studied for three years at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts 1987–1990.

In 1999 – 2001, she took her son to painting classes at the Hampstead School of Art, where she found her own vocation as a painter. 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 by her of Diana, Princess of Wales, which provoked media controversy, as did a subsequent painting of drug victim, Rachel Whitear. There was a dispute with the Stuckists, who said they had influenced her work; Vine said they had not.

Later work has included Kate Moss as a subject, as in Holy water cannot help you now (2005). In 2005, another painting of Diana, Princess of Wales, Murdered, pregnant and embalmed (2005) was bought by George Michael. 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, which won over some previously hostile critics. Germaine Greer gave a public talk at the museum about Vine's work and wrote an essay for the exhibition catalogue. The Financial Times, said Vine's scrutiny of the cult of celebrity as contemporary fairy tale was descended from the same tradition as Andy Warhol and Hans Christian Andersen. In the same year, Vine provided clothing designs for Topshop. In 2009, the Oxford Union Society announced they had invited Stella Vine to debate on 19 February.