One of my favorite living artists is British artist and sculptor, Nina Mae Fowler.
I met Nina Mae Fowler by accident. It was an accident meant to happen, a friendship meant to be.
As an art lover, I troll galleries and their websites in search of new pieces that speak to me. I am a fan of London’s Saatchi Gallery and have found pieces of art that suit me perfectly on SaatchiArt.com. I subscribe to SaatchiArt weekly emails to discover works as they are freshly loaded, to expand my art horizons with new art and artists. In 2013 I opened an email with Saatchi’s annual list of ‘Ones to Watch’. There I spotted works by British artist Nina Mae Fowler, and was completely and utterly drawn to them. The works were full of movement, drama and emotional depth; I was captivated.
Nina Mae Fowler is known for her large-scale, enigmatic pencil and graphite drawings and their accompanying sculptural works. Her subject matter most often centres around icons of Pre-Code Hollywood cinema and popular culture, presenting a dark and contradictory side to the actors’ otherwise idealised lives. Her recently published monograph, Measuring Elvis, exposes her intensive research methods used as well as presents a comprehensive overview of her art and artistic practices, including her trademark cutout drawings, eyelet mountings, and ambitious large-scale installations.
A Perfect Pair
Nina’s artworks pair beautifully with my design style; she draws inspiration from Pre-Code Hollywood and her work is classically composed yet wonderfully fresh and new. Her piece Lucia (Knockers V) holds pride of place in the Music Room of Stonehurst Place. It was this piece that first drew my attention to Nina’s work. As I discussed in an interview for Nina Fowler Print, when I saw Lucia (Knockers V) for the first time, I was enchanted and so taken that I made her the wallpaper on my large iMac so I could admire her daily. I found this intriguing video of the piece being created (you really must watch!) and posted the SaatchiArt.com image to my Facebook page with two words: I want. I would go back to SaatchiArt.com every few days just to look at it again. I never could have guessed that my beautiful partner would purchase the piece for my birthday that year. Lucky me!
Nina has been praised widely in print and on the internet as one of England’s finest artists, and her work is admired and collected by British film and fashion luminaries such as John Maybury, Jude Law, Sienna Miller and Caroline Issa. Her works have been incorporated into designer fashions and are included in public and private collections in Britain, Europe and the USA.
One of Nina’s upcoming projects includes consulting with me on the new Stonehurst Place carriage houses suites, but the project is so exciting we are keeping it under wraps … for now. Perhaps the hardest part of our collaboration will be choosing which pieces of hers to use in the new luxury suites! I’ve spent time with Nina taking private drawing lessons, and from those I learned more than just drawing technique, I drew inspiration for our new project. Nina is like me – creative and bursting with ideas waiting to come to fruition. I can’t wait to see what the two of us come up with together!
