The Art Of Life
Born in England, Vanessa Westgate grew up in the U.K. and then moved to New York to pursue a life in art (and a boyfriend). She has been a textile designer, a photographer, a travel writer/photographer, a ceramic artist, a painter, a geographer and an environmentalist. Now she lives and works in Los Angeles and writes and illustrates picture books for children. She is a member of SCBWI.
"I love to create stories for children. The combination of words and art is so exciting. What I try to do is tell a story very simply about something that is very complex, and in so doing I try to show the truth and beauty of it, and perhaps create a sense of wonder in that." My stories are often inspired by nature and I hope that children will learn to love nature too.
"In the end we will conserve only what we love,
we will love only what we understand,
and we will understand only what we are taught." ...Baba Doum
In her pre-artist life in England, Vanessa sold encyclopedias (for 2 weeks), cleaned trains for British Rail (for two months) and worked in a Birds Eye frozen food factory (for too long). She graduated Summa Cum Laude from UCLA in 2007 with a B/A in Geography. Her favorite color is turquoise... and orange... and stripes! And yellow! Her favorite food is chocolate... (Please do not send her chocolate!)
Her artwork has been represented by Henri Bendel, New York; Gallery of Functional Art, Los Angeles; Tesoro, Los angeles; Hamilton Gallery, Los Angeles; Village Studio Gallery, Pacific palisades; McCleans gallery, Malibu; Classic Co., Palm Springs; Pacific Design center, Palm Springs; and Redbubble. Her work is in private collections worldwide.
Travel articles and photographs have been published by Caribbean Travel & Life, Oceans Magazine, Tradewinds Magazine, Italian Moda, Franco Speranza Stock Agency and Darkroom Photography Magazine.
She has designed textiles for Burlington Industries, New York; and J.P. Stevens, New York.
Books: Babies Seen by 18 Photographers, by Martina Mettner. (One of 18 photographer selected for the book)
Picture Books: To Catch an Elephant, written and illustrated by Vanessa Westgate, published by Clavis in 2019
To Ride a Unicorn, written and illustrated by Vanessa Westgate, published by Clavis in 2021
MALIBU, CALIFORNIA