Valentino HCSS20

Valentino HCSS20 is an original oil on primed paper artwork by British oil painter, GG Stokes.

GG Stokes was born by the sea, brought up in the countryside of the Cotswolds, UK. She was always quite a creative child and quickly became obsessed with fashion imagery. Fast forward a few years and we find Stokes at the London College of Fashion studying Fashion Styling and Photography; then a BA HONS and eventually a MASTERS in Photography.

Stokes made a career for herself within Editorial work for magazines. Styling and Creative Direction also shaped her career, where she worked with a number of notable people in the fashion industry, as well as on the Haute Couture side of things for a few years too.

GG has always classed painting, books, print media and the creation of imagery as her first loves and so decided to put all of her time into becoming a full-time artist about a year ago.

GG Stokes talks about her work, her love of nostalgia and influences that create pieces like Valentino HCSS20:

My father used to get the Sunday Papers and so I would consume the magazines that came with the paper. Publications like The Sunday Times magazine with great pages influenced by the likes of Twen magazine from Germany. I loved the combination of clean impactful imagery and slick typography. When I got to University and London, Fashion magazines were in their prime.  I was obsessed by that point and myself and most of LCF and St. Martins could be found sat on the floor at Selfridges magazine shop drooling over them like it was a library. 

As she began to get assisting jobs and went into the industry, magazines such as i-D , Dazed and Confused and The Face became references for other work and were earmarked, tabbed and labelled for their contents – creating her own little image rolodex. They started to look like artworks all of their own, with the contents being a strange route back to her past through imagery and seasons. So far, Stokes’ ‘subjects’ have been those magazines, which she photographs and then paints.

Theres a lot of meaning behind what she is painting; some obvious, some personal, some nostalgic. We can’t wait to see what comes next from GG Stokes under our wing.