VANESSA BRASSEY
Painter & Philosopher
A contemporary painter recording the quiet anatomy of ordinary intimacy.
'Weekend Rituals at The Mixed Ponds, Hampstead Heath', Vanessa Brassey
Oil on Metal, 70cm by 50cm, 2025.
Selected Works
From Hampstead Heath’s swimming ponds to imagined waterscapes and close-up portraits, Vanessa Brassey’s paintings explore how we find joy, shape the stories of our lives, and continually re-invent ourselves.
Hampstead Heath Swimming Ponds
'Cinematic Men's Pond, Hampstead Heath', series Hampstead Heath
Oil on Stretched Canvas 100cm by 70cm, Vanessa Brassey, 2024.
This collection celebrates modern baptisms and cleansing rituals amid the urban sprawl: water, changing light and friendships formed in Hampstead Heath’s unique swimming ponds. Get in touch to find out about available paintings, or to commission a painting.
Riviera Reverie & The Messengers
'Heat', series Riviera Reverie
Oil on Stretched Canvas 150cm by 90cm, Vanessa Brassey, 2026.
All we see, touch, taste and hear is full of memory. In good times, past and present intertwine naturally. In joy, we move through the world in harmonically holding together where we were, are, and on our way to. But in grief or anxiety, this easy bundle unravels. We feel unmoored, our wakeful moments accompanied by an uncanny sense of half-presence.These paintings explore that untwisting and repair. I offer them as strange records of presence with absence. A kind of evidence that we make the past, and that past makes us whole in the present. Within them, I have discovered messengers, carrying versions of a not-now that I can stand back from and contemplate. I’m always fascinated by what others discover in them.
Get in touch to find out about available paintings, or to commission a painting.
The History of Cover Stories, Porcelain Books
'Jane Austen: Master of the Modern Novel published Anonymously', series The History of Cover Stories vol.1
Hand made porcelain book, underglaze,overglaze, 25ct. gold leaf 22cm by 17cm, Vanessa Brassey & Sharon Taylor, 2026.
The History of Cover Stories explores the significant contributions women have made to literature, science, music and art while being compelled to conceal their sex, adopt male pseudonyms, or allow their work to appear under the names of husbands, brothers or male colleagues in order to be taken seriously. Each porcelain book is handmade and individually finished with underglaze, overglaze and 24ct gold leaf. The wider series also includes works on Emily Dickinson, Gwen John, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun.
Also available in hand made, painted, and finished porcelain, 'Tender Is the Night', 'Romeo & Juliet', and 'Swimming Hampstead Heath', and we are offering a limited number of portrait books to commission.
Get in touch to find out about available porcelain books, or to commission a painting.
Portraits
'15 Minutes with a Philosopher' (detail from a larger work) '
Oil on metal tiles 10cm by 10cm each, Vanessa Brassey, 2023.
All my portraits begin with a shared presence: with the privilege of being allowed to look closely at another person, and the responsibility of showing them how I see them. Explore the portraits, or get in touch to commission a painting.
Shop the Hampstead Heath collection: art cards, prints, & museum archival pigment prints.
Francesca Mack, London
“I received the print this morning and it's absolutely beautiful. Thank you for the speedy dispatch"
Lucy, Etsy
"Beautiful card and lovely quality."
Jo B., Bucks
"The painting is up on the kitchen wall and I LOVE it. Everyone comments as soon as they come in the room.”