“These paintings are my heartfelt desire to express the moments of joy that can be found when we look out of ourselves and into our environments. The miracles of nature, the beauty and the humour that exist along side us as we travel through our lives.”
– Vanessa Cooper, August, 2021

A new collection of Vanessa Cooper paintings is a celebration in itself. What a blast of colour and life-affirming joy. Goats, dogs and rabbits settling down together on a sofa to watch a movie, gold finches hovering over a vase of flowers. A trio of dogs and their housemate cat stopping to ogle a hamster. It’s the product of a curious imagination and an off beat view of the world. It’s A Wonderful Life finds happiness in everyday domestic life and nature. The allegorical animal paintings reflect the ups and downs of family life. The daily scraps, laughter and moments of love and affection that take place in all homes. In the last 18 months we have had more opportunity than normal to observe this and to be grateful. 

Likewise the nature on our doorstep. Vanessa’s love of her garden and its flora as well as the birds and animals that inhabit it is there for all to see, none more so than in the cover image, Dog-Watching-Cat-Watching-Bird-Watching-Bee. Her means of expressing this vision with childlike naivete and bold, saturated colour only heightens the humour and the wonder of it all. Vanessa, like all of us, also fears for the future of the natural world and our place in it. It’s more important that ever to look and to appreciate and to laugh and to love and to enjoy the smaller things in life. 

Vanessa Cooper is a mother of four who lives in Dorset. She has been painting since her early teens. She studied at Portsmouth University, first exhibited her work in 1987, and has built a reputation as a bold, imaginative artist with a deep love of colour. She has had annual solo exhibitions for the last ten years and has exhibited in numerous group exhibitions and at art fairs. Her work is collected in the UK and internationally.