Okay, I’ll be honest: I have a small blog addiction. Well, maybe not even a small one… The list of art, fashion and music blogs I’m following on Bloglovin (a great website to keep up with all your favourite blogs – be sure to add Bleaq!) is expanding every month, which results in me reading several blogposts on my iPhone every night. But hey, it gets me inspired, so why not? One of my favourite blogs is FAIIINT by Stephanie Brown from Leicester, England. Steph has great style, and posts gorgeous, inspiring outfit photos. Besides that she writes about art, travel and her amazingly cute dog Nico. Seriously, check out Nico, he’s too cute :)

Steph is a true art lover, and I was curious to hear about her favourite artists. She warned me that art is one of her greatest passions and she could talk about it all day, something I can definitely relate to ;) We narrowed her list of favourites down to six artists, varying from a classic painter to more modern fine artists, a photographer, fashion designer and comic illustrator. Enjoy!

 

Bleaq: Before we start with your favourite artists: could you introduce FAIIINT to the Bleaq readers?
Stephanie: I started FAIIINT after I finished a Fashion Design degree at University, I left feeling like I’d had all my passion & inspiration sucked out of me & I needed a way to regain it. It started off as a place to talk about designers & artists I loved, somewhere to post collages & mood boards for inspiration and to share the things I’d created. Over the past year and a half it’s become more of an online style diary, but I still try to post artist & designer features as much as possible, as I would hate it to become nothing more than an outfit blog!

 

 

 

 

– A collection of my favourite outfits posts on FAIIINT

 

Now on to the real deal: Stephanie about her six favourite artists!

 

Andy Warhol

 

Why did you pick this artist, what do you like about his/her work?
Warhol holds such a special place in my heart, I would even go as far as to call him my idol. I love the way he turned the art world on its head, blurring the lines between high & low art. He made people see the beauty in even the most mundane. Everything is beautiful, you just have to look for it. Most people can marvel at the beauty of a DaVinci, but few stop to admire what an amazing piece of graphic design the label for Campbell’s soup is! And it really is! His wit, ambition, kookyness & the fact he is insanely quotable are just a few of the many other reasons I love him so much.

 

How did you discover him/her? Or what was the first piece you’ve seen by him/her?
I was first introduced to his work by one of my favourite art teachers in school, when I was around 11. I think it must have been either the Marilyns or the Campbells Soup Cans. I now own virtually every book written by/on him & if I ever found myself with a large chunk of spare cash, the first thing I’d blow it on is a signed original for my wall!

 

– Marilyn Diptych [source]

 

What’s your favourite piece by the artist?
Most people find it odd that I love him so much, considering I’m usually drawn to darker things. Unsurprisingly though, his ‘Death & Disaster’ series is my favourite of his & in particular the various colour ways of the ‘Little Electric Chair’. There’s something about the dark subject matter in total contrast with the bright, pop colours that I just find so arresting.

 

– Death and Disasters series [source]

 

 

 

– Little Electric Chairs [source I] [source II] [source III] 

 

 

Francis Bacon

 

Why did you pick this artist, what do you like about his/her work?
I’ve always been a sucker for a tortured soul, and Francis Bacon is one of the ultimate examples of this. He was so tormented by the things that had happened to him in his lifetime & his paintings are just dripping with this anger, anguish & agony. You can really feel it in his bold, harsh strokes & the distorted features of his subjects. They are so powerful & full of such raw emotion.

 

How did you discover him/her? Or what was the first piece you’ve seen by him/her?
I’m not exactly sure, I think it may have been a visit to the Tate gallery when I was younger, as they have quite a few of his pieces.

 

What’s your favourite piece by the artist?
It would probably be ‘Painting 1946’ – but I love his ‘Study After Velazquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X’ and the huge number of portraits with the twisted facial features too.

 

– Painting 1946 [source]

 

– Study After Velazquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X [source]  

 

Caravaggio

 

Why did you pick this artist, what do you like about his/her work?
I’m not in the slightest bit religious, but I’ve always been drawn to religious art & architecture. I love his signature use of chiaroscuro, it brings such drama to the pieces that you can’t help but get drawn into them. The thing I’ve always most admired though is the realism, especially in the faces & expressions, his works are often unflinchingly graphic & he paints his subjects faces so full of raw emotion.

 

How did you discover him/her? Or what was the first piece you’ve seen by him/her?
Again whilst I was at school, I was lucky to have some brilliant art teachers & his works really stuck with me when we were learning about the Old Masters. Then, seeing some of his pieces in person at the National Gallery when I was a little older really cemented my love for his style, I love the way his pieces really grab you when you see them in person.

 

What’s you favourite piece by the artist?
‘Judith Beheading Holofernes’, but ‘The Seven Works of Mercy’ is a very close second.

 

– Judith Beheading Holofernes [source]

 

– The Seven Works of Mercy [source]

 

Haider Ackermann

 

Why did you pick this artist, what do you like about his/her work?
He is possibly my favourite designer. He has a similar aesthetic to the other designers I adore too, but he just has that little something extra that I can’t quite put my finger on. His pieces are so instantly recognisable as his too, much in the same way that if you saw a Rick Owens (who is a very, very close second by the way!) piece hanging in a store, you’d know exactly whose it was without even having to check the label. I love when designers have such a strong signature vision.

 

How did you discover him/her? Or what was the first piece you’ve seen by him/her?
Just through browsing style.com catching up with the latest shows. It was his A/W 2007 collection, I’d never heard of him before, but I remember scrolling through the images & being totally blown away, thinking ‘I want everything, I want to dress like this every single day!’

 

What’s your favourite piece by the artist?
That’s so hard to choose! But I think collection wise, it would be A/W 2010. It’s one of those collections that’s permanently stuck in my mind, the moody colour palette, the draping, folding, twisting, layering, those huge wrapped collars, beautiful laser cut leather, it was perfect start to finish.

 

 

 

– Haiden Ackermann Fall 2010 RTW [source] 

 

Paolo Roversi

 

Why did you pick this artist, what do you like about his/her work?
His images have such a dark, gothic, moody atmosphere to them, but with a real softness & femininity too. I love when artists & designers can combine contradictory elements like this in such a harmonious way, they really compliment & play off of each other, making for such dynamic & interesting pieces.

 

How did you discover him/her? Or what was the first piece you’ve seen by him/her?
I guess it must have first come across him whilst reading Vogue, I can’t remember what the first editorial was though. I feel like he’s one of those photographers that I’ve liked since I can remember, so I can’t seem to pinpoint the exact time.

 

What’s you favourite piece by the artist?
I don’t think I could pick a definite favourite here, but the ‘Family Circus’ editorial for W magazine with the huge, couture gowns & all the snow always sticks in my mind, it’s absolutely magical. ‘A White Story’ for Vogue Italia is also firmly in my mind, as it was a big inspiration for one of my collections at University. I have never seen an editorial of his that didn’t blow me away though.

 

 

 

 

 – ‘Family Circus’ for W Magazine [source]

 

Ted Mckeever

 

Why did you pick this artist, what do you like about his/her work?
I’m a huge fan of graphic novels & comics, I think some of the most talented artists working today are working in comics & there’s nothing better than a great story told through beautiful illustration. Mckeever has such a strong, unique, distinctive style & it has that kind of underlying darkness to it that I’m always drawn to. Scratchy, scrawled lines & tonnes of atmosphere in each & every panel, it’s so easy to get lost in once you start.

 

How did you discover him/her? Or what was the first piece you’ve seen by him/her?
One of my friends had been reading Eddy Current & recommended it to me knowing it would be just to my taste. I read the series in a day & was totally hooked!

 

What’s you favourite piece by the artist?
Metropol is my favourite of his series, though they are all brilliant! I think the story of Metropol just appealed to me more, I can never resist a story of good vs evil, angels vs demons & that creeping sense of dread he infuses into each page as the end of days looms closer is so perfectly crafted. You can’t put it down once you’ve started!

 

– Batman Nosferatu cover [source]

 

– Batman Nosferatu page 49 [source]

 

– Batman unpublished cover [source]

 

– Eddy Current #12 cover [source]

 

– Metropol #10 cover [source]

 

That’s it, thanks for reading! Since it’s something new: would you like to read more of articles such as this one on Bleaq? Many thanks to Steph for taking time to write this up, it’s much appreciated. If you like her style be sure to follow FAIIINT! Have a lovely weekend, hope to see you back on Monday :)