Artist Spotlight: Richard Haines

Richard Haines is among today’s most sought-after fashion illustrators. It is not uncommon to see Haines seated in the front row at Fashion Week’s most desirable shows, busily creating drawings for clients including TheNew York Times and InStyle magazine. Recently, he’s had two exhibitions in New York City: “The Line of Beauty” at Envoy Enterprises on Chrystie Street (2009) and “The Line Exposed: Selected Erotica” at John Bartlett (2010). Next month he is included in “The Boys of Bushwick,” a group show at Norte Maar Gallery in Brooklyn, opening April 1.

Fuller+Roberts Co. in Los Angeles is presenting his first West Coast exhibition, curated by Diane Rosenstein. The exhibition, April 8 to May 7, will consist of original drawings — many published in The New York Times as well as on the artist’s wildly popular blog, What I Saw Today.

Fuller+Roberts Co. is a design gallery and showroom founded by screenwriter Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies) and interior decorator Scott Roberts. Inside the new La Cienega space is a carefully edited selection of 20th-century design, an eponymous house collection, and fine art photography.

The Advocate: Why are you an artist?
Richard Haines: Hmm. Good question. I don't think I could really be anything else — aside from a fashion designer, which I did for years. I always think of the movie Auntie Mame when she gets a temp job and the switchboard blows up — that's me. I started drawing as soon as I could hold a pencil — I think for me it was a way of surviving, of being, of existing. And later it became a way of supporting myself. I'm now at the point where I realize my art is my voice, it's what I have to say about the world, and people seem to want to listen, so it's pretty awesome.

What catches your eye?
People who hold themselves a certain way, who have a certain kind of swagger. Guys with style, and that doesn't mean a guy wearing a lot of expensive clothes. It's more about a person who is confident, has a great sense of themselves, is sensual, humorous, alive. Right now the long, lean line of a guy in a small jacket or pea coat and tapered pants is so much fun to sketch.