Vanessa Bowman

Vanessa Bowman (b. 1970) is a British painter celebrated for her richly textured still lifes and evocative landscapes. Born into a family steeped in artistic tradition, Vanessa was raised in an environment where creativity was a way of life—both her father and sister are also artists.

She honed her craft at the Winchester School of Art, graduating in 1993 with First Class Honours in Printed Textile Design. During her studies, Vanessa received multiple accolades, including the Eileen Bendall and Sanderson prizes for drawing, as well as the Daler Rowney Young Artist Award for her pastel works exhibited at the Mall Galleries, which she won two years in a row.

Vanessa’s work is deeply inspired by her love of colour, pattern, and the tactile world around her. Her artistic vision draws on diverse sources—from the sun-drenched architecture of Italy and bustling European bazaars to the intimate beauty of an English garden. These influences converge in her distinctive painterly style, characterized by subtle tones contrasted with jewel-bright accents.

Her still life paintings capture the quiet elegance of everyday objects—a vase of flowers, a bowl of citrus, a solitary shell—arranged with careful deliberation to celebrate their form, hue, and texture. In her landscapes, Vanessa turns her eye to the Dorset countryside surrounding her home, depicting the land’s seasonal rhythms with sensitivity and detail. Foregrounds often brim with nature’s small treasures—vivid berries, delicate cow parsley, or frost-kissed hedgerows—leading viewers into an intimate meditation on place.