Friday, 2 September 2005
Lucian Freud's portrait of the model Kate Moss sold earlier this year for £3.9m. Stella Vine has yet to put a price on her own version, finished just a day or so ago, but given the dramatic transformation in the life of the one-time stripper who got her big artistic break last year thanks to the acquisitive eye of collector Charles Saatchi, it is unlikely to stay propped up against a wall for long.
It was revealed this week that the pop star George Michael had paid £25,000 for one of Vine's paintings, a portrait of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, who was one of his friends. The two were introduced by Michael's boyfriend, Kenny Goss, who has a gallery in Dallas where she has exhibited.
It is a developing friendship through which Vine, 36, is now meeting celebrities such as the former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, whom she has previously painted only with the help of magazine and newspaper images.
Her picture of Kate Moss was also inspired by photographs. Vine has painted the blonde model, whose spirit she admires hugely, several times before but has not been satisfied with the results until now. "I'd done a few small ones before but never quite got her. But I've been working on this for a few days and I just stayed up all night and finished it yesterday morning or the day before," she said. "It's got the little Sid Vicious sneer she does. I'm pretty impressed by Kate. Although she does her job very well and very professionally, she doesn't seem commercial. She's got something, I suppose."
Despite media controversy about Moss's relationship with the pop singer Pete Doherty, a self-confessed drug addict, Vine said she was sure she was a good mother to Lila, the model's daughter by her ex-boyfriend Jefferson Hack. "The Sixties were very wild - with the Rolling Stones - and they all lived forever and had many children who are OK," Vine said.
Vine had been working as a stripper to support herself until just before Mr Saatchi snapped up two of her works last year, catapulting her to prominence. The first was a portrait of the dead heroin addict Rachel Whitear and the second was an earlier portrait of Diana, which portrayed the late princess with blood pouring from her mouth.
The artist's task now is to produce the work required for shows commissioned by galleries from London to New York.
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