'Bloody' Diana revealed

Created by a former stripper, this is the extraordinary portrait of Princess Diana set to star in an exhibition of new work organised by Britain's most controversial collector, Charles Saatchi.

His patronage helped Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and the Chapman brothers become some of the world's most famed, and notorious, artists.

Now Saatchi is poised to unveil striking works by a new generation he believes will follow in their footsteps. Stuffed horses, a vibrating mummy and a rope-making machine are among the highlights of his New Blood exhibition.

However, the most arresting addition to the Saatchi Gallery is the portrait of a bleeding Princess Diana begging her butler Paul Burrell for help.

Saatchi bought it for a mere £600 two weeks ago. It is the first work sold by single parent Stella Vine, 35, who said the death of her mother and romantic disappointment inspired her 30 or so paintings on the life of the princess. "On the day of Diana's funeral I was glued to the telly, howling, like so many other people," she said. "But I love all the stories around her, like Dodi and the possible pregnancy, and all the other conspiracy theories."

Vine started painting only four years ago. She created the work, entitled Hi Paul Can You Come Over, after reading in the Evening Standard that the Princess believed there were plans to kill her. "It got me thinking of her sitting in Kensington Palace, pretty much alone, and phoning up Paul Burrell and really needing to talk to him."

The artist left home at 13 and, after attending drama school, found work in hostess bars and strip clubs. "I worked at the Windmill for five years off and on. You danced fully nude, and very explicitly, on the stage. It was a tough environment but you met a lot of surprising people - lawyers, journalists and others."

Her ex-husband is Charles Thompson, founder of the Stuckist group that opposes the conceptual art of Emin and Hirst - though Vine is an admirer.

Another of Saatchi's exhibitors is 26-year-old Conrad Shawcross, who specialises in mechanical sculptures and is the son of William Shawcross, the official biographer of the Queen Mother and Rupert Murdoch.

Also on show is a vibrating mummy by Francis Upritchard, the New Zealander threatened by animal rights extremists for using second-hand fur bought at flea markets in her work. Equally controversial are Belgian Berlinde de Bruyckere's stuffed horses, posed like Henry Moore sculptures.

New Blood opens on 24 March, the first anniversary of The Saatchi Gallery.

Read Andrew Renton's exclusive interview with Charles Saatchi in tomorrow's Evening Standard.