Collection: VeeBee

While VeeBee’s identity remains largely hidden, her artwork is open and honest; inspired by pop and urban art themes, she explores a world of glamour, beauty and fame, and her palette of vibrant colours combines with a familiar cultural vocabulary to set her work within an immediately recognisable context.

VeeBee’s preferred medium is spray paints for their versatility and the smooth and uniform finish that they can create. Interested in the idea of freedom versus control, her approach to art is unconventional; she enjoys the liberation which comes from relinquishing the control one has over a traditional paintbrush and allowing herself to take risks. Holding the spray can over a delicate piece which she has been working on for several days is a terrifying and a thrilling moment she says, especially for a self-confessed perfectionist.

The works in VeeBee’s new collection are composed on the reverse of a sheet of glass using spray paint and the artist’s own hand cut stencils. Each portrait of an iconic figure is built from bold lines rather than continuous tones; when viewed from a distance, these lines blur and blend together to form the illusion of continuous shapes and shades, making the image seem almost photorealistic. The finished piece is placed in a deep-box white frame so the unpainted sections of glass become white space. This presentation gives the piece a three-dimensional feel and somehow we get the sense that it is floating in mid-air.

The unpredictable nature of VeeBee’s tools and materials also means that each work is a time-consuming project, taking four to eight weeks, depending on the complexity of the original idea. Constantly inventing and experimenting with techniques to suit different projects, she says: “I enjoy the challenge of exploring new and inventive techniques, to create pieces that appear balanced and simple, but are technically complex. I have made art my life’s work.”