Fiona Stephenson :: pin-up artist

[The Pin-up Files]

The Fiona Stephenson gallery at the The Pin-up Files has just gone live tonight!

Fiona is an internationally-recognised artist who sells her work all over the world amongst whom are celebrity devotees including pin-up model Bernie Dexter. She is also famous as a Gil Elvgren tribute artist.

Fiona originally trained at Harrow School of Art to be an illustrator in the UK, and briefly worked for television and magazines. She gains great satisfaction from the work that she does, and enjoys the fact that is a truly female-friendly genre. "I love the playful quality of pin-up,” she says. "A lot of my buyers are women because they like the sexy but not sleazy style. It seems this genre is driven by women, from the Burlesque dancers to artists like myself."

TO THE GALLERY
http://www.thepinupfiles.com/stephenson.html

ARTIST :: Fiona Stephenson TITLE :: "Right Fit" YEAR :: 2008 MODEL :: Bernie Dexter Copyright © Fiona Stephenson

Says Fiona in an interview on Gil Elvgren and his influence on her work:

"I originally started to copy Elvgren's art to learn how to get those amazing colours and light, I still sell Elvgren tribute paintings from my website, quite a few of his paintings were destroyed in the 50's and the original's can cost £200,000, mine are more affordable. The first painting I did took months, even though I'd been to art collage, I'd never used oil paint before so had to learn the skill, achieving the 'Elvgren' skin tones was particularly difficult. Painting the stockings is another challenge, to achieve the sheer silky quality covering the leg can have me tearing at my hair but the sense of achievement is incredible when I get it right.

"When painting one of my original pieces I attempt to get the Elvgren playfulness, I try to create a little story so it isn't just a portrait of a pretty girl. The ideal pin up girl should be happy and full of fun, a bit mischievous, with lots of expression to her face, revealing her stockings and underwear should be purely accidental and never crude. Some models are perfect for this genre, Right Fit, Bear Behind and Maid in Heaven are based on the beautiful Bernie Dexter, she's a natural with her huge smile and large eyes. I gave Bernie the Maid in Heaven' painting as a gift for inspiring me, she's a lovely person. I'm hoping my next muse is going to be someone like Missy Malone or Paloma Faith, I've also considered approaching Lily Allen, they all have the 'look'.

"I think it's great that over half my buyers are women, they love the sexy but not sleazy style of pin up, the 50's was a time when women looked shapely and self assured with their assets, I think some women find this empowering. When Andy from Stockings & Romance approached me with a proposal to put my artwork, on a corset, I jumped at the chance, I thought it was a fantastic idea! it's such a great thing to do, Andy explained where it would be on the garment so I kept the image simple, anything too detailed wouldn't have shown up at that size. I'm very pleased with the results with High Stepper becoming the work in question and hope women enjoy wearing the lingerie with the artwork of a woman wearing the lingerie!"