Vanessa McKernan is a Canadian visual artist whose figurative paintings work to express the fragility and complexity of the psyche as it struggles with mortality, love, and human connection.

Vanessa holds a BFA from Concordia University and is a two-time recipient (2020, 2024) of the prestigious Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant. Originally from Toronto, Vanessa recently relocated to the countryside of the Ottawa Valley where her artistic and horticultural practices can develop in tandem.

Working with oil painting and drawing as focal mediums, Vanessa creates profound narrative works that are intensely process based - continuously experimenting with the materiality of her mediums to create something truly magical.

"What I paint is deeply connected to my process in the studio. There too I am trying to marry the formal elements of making figurative painting, with intuition. This means starting with a theme, a framework that provides structure, a place to start from and a place to return to if I get lost. Within that framework, I sit down each day to engage in dialogue with my materials, being open to who and what shows up. This I believe gives space for the life of the painting itself and its ability to reveal something to me that is greater than or bigger than my own intentions for it. I see this process as the height of creative expression."
- Vanessa McKernan