Born and brought up in Brazil and Paris; and educated in London, New York and Florence; Stéphanie is a contemporary figurative painter inspired by the old masters.
She brings a variety of influences to her striking work. From vibrant South American scenes to darker portraits set in snow covered forests, each painting has a unique story to tell.
'I see my paintings as unique pieces with very specific stories to tell, and as such I give them each time to grow and develop a 'personality'. I try to create art which lifts the human spirit. Work that is embedded in poetry'.
Having started her artistic career as a costume designer at the Sadler's Wells Theatre in London, she also worked in New York and the Cayman Islands before settling in North East Scotland.
An accomplished puppet designer, she now focuses her considerable talents on painting and art tuition, and has recently started to take on portrait commissions.
The Woodend Barn (...) show of fascinating paintings and mixed media creations by Stéphanie Vandem contains magical rich pickings, eclectic in the best possible ways – mixing images from folk-tales and folk-art with echoes of artists as iconic as Zurbaran and Kees Van Dongen ! Artists learn more from other artists than they do from Nature. This artist’s wide travels and accumulated perceptions result in transformations of memories that are both personal and universal – birth, love, death intensely conjoined, vibrant and striking. “So far . .” and will go much further.
John Berry, Gray's School of Art
