WHO: CORINNE LEWIS
WHAT: ARTIST
WHERE: BRISBANE
VISIT: www.corinnelewis.com.au
FFF LOVES … Corinne’s sumptuous and colour saturated fashion influenced art, with meticulous attention to texture, fabric and detail.
What are your staples?
Vintage dresses; La La Latrobe for the latest; Metalicus, Stella & Minx for layering; embellished belts, Italian boots and scarf for every winter occasion!
What are you indulgences?
Inspiration for my paintings: 50’s cocktail dresses, especially embellished with sequins, beads, brocade, coupure lace… extravagant details, full flowing sleeves. Vintage hats, Lover lace dresses, Zimmermann, Gail Sorronda’s frills, Romance was Born lace. My last indulgence; my one of a kind George Gross navy wedding dress.
What can’t you live without?
My eclectic vintage collection, a mix of 40’s glamour, 50’s dancing dresses, and 80’s sexy ruching and exaggerated silhouettes. My fave piece for the moment; a Studibaker fur and sequined waisted jacket or my Grandmother’s creation from the 60’s — a Dr Chivago style black coatdress with leopard print fur hem and collar, cinched waist and full skirt… my Mum wore it back then. More recently I’m in love with my Rock & Republic leather jacket.
What is past its use-by-date?
Denim shorts of any kind.
What is your wardrobe craving?
Vintage Valentino! Just a once in a lifetime! J’Aton Couture, a pair of the latest Just Cavalli jeans but I’d settle for Nolita. Of course with Summer approaching, I have my eye on high waisted bikinis from Zimmermann.
About Corinne Lewis:
Fashion, old-world beauty and the feminine form; it’s clear Corinne Lewis has a thematic preference when it comes to her art. Faceless forms draped in folds of fabric and strings of pearls pose on her canvases. Vibrant colours dramatically dance with light and shadow across their flesh. Corinne’s elegant and luxurious neo-realistic style breathes life into her work creating a collection that is distinctly stylish and sexy.
Corinne has always been an artist at heart. As a child, a brush or pencil were never far away and as she grew older, her passion grew stronger. Throughout her schooling career she won many art awards and was accepted into the Queensland College of Art.
She graduated in 1992 as a graphic designer and briefly pursued work with a couple of advertising agencies. However, the dissatisfaction of computer-based design saw her make the decision to go it alone as an artist.
She displayed work in group exhibitions on the Gold Coast and Brisbane and had success with a series of flower pieces in Montville. The soft curves and flowing folds of her floral technique helped develop her style and its influence can be seen in her current work.
As an artist, Corinne draws on a vast collection of stimuli. From her adventures in England, France and Italy studying old masters Michelangelo, Caravaggio and Rubens and the work of photographer Guy Bourdin, to her infatuation with screen legends Audrey Hepburn and Ginger Rogers, Corinne’s works have seen an eclectic mix of influences.
She has also received inspiration a little closer to home with work by fellow Brisbane artists and friends Virginia Morrison and Andy Wild proving very influential. So, too, has a collection of garments created by Corinne’s fashion designer grandmother and aunt which Corinne still paints and wears today.