Lori Meeboer
Lori Meeboer is a third-generation Canadian artist based in Corbyville, ON. Lori attended Trent University in Peterborough ON. She works from her studio in Corbyville and locally is a member of the Quinte Arts Council. Her work is available on her website, in galleries, or by appointment at her studio.
Lori also teaches online classes geared for beginning and intermediate painters.
Michelle Vella
Instagram: @michellevellart
Canadian, Toronto-based pop artist Michelle Vella is known for her colourful big eye portrayals of nostalgic pop culture icons. Since childhood, she’s always been considered a talented artist. After graduating with a Fine Arts BA, the starving artist stigma didn’t sit well with Vella’s entrepreneurial spirit. So, with that, she pursued art related careers and some not so related, allowing her to develop skills in sales, marketing and business. After 10yrs running her graphic design business RealSTUDIO®, Michelle made a career change at 50 to pursue art full-time.
Instagram propelled near instant success of her Wide Big Eye portraits on the NY fashion scene. In 2015, Fashion’s iconic designer Diane von Furstenberg discovered Vella on Instagram, asking to purchase Vella’s portrait of DVF, which is now part of Diane’s art collection at the DVF Fashion House NYC. That same year, W Magazine commissioned custom portraits of their Editors, including Edward Enninful, Fashion Editor at the time and now Editor in Chief at British Vogue. She also joined W’s annual NY Fashion Week ‘It Girl” Celebrity Luncheon to paint live portraits of such icons as Emily Ratajkowski.
She then transitioned from fashion illustrator to artist when she started painting large portraits of nostalgic pop icons such as Audrey Hepburn, Elton John and Andy Warhol. Vella’s style has evolved, dropping the black outlines and flat surfaces for a more realistic style giving her big eye portraits a riveting fun new look.
Kim Blair
Moderator