The imagery in her works is from close people, close nature and close surroundings: “Shadows and reflections carefully rendered reveal the distortion of thoughts and experience as I try to live in the moment, yet struggle to do so. I bend light around corners.  Shadows and reflections are nonsensical yet compositionally interesting.  I make new connections with colour and texture in each painting”. 

One commentator has noted, “The deceptive everyday nature of her subject matter belies hidden depths of relationship, feeling and emotion.  One could describe her process as absence of thought, a freedom of construct, not unlike the stream of consciousness associated with authors such as Hemmingway and Thomas Wolfe.” 

If light and shade were students, she would be their master.  This skill, combined with a naturally deft hand and a determined use of perspective, imbues her subjects with gravitas.  Vanessa Stockard refers to set design elements that often alter and morph as her piece progresses. 

Vanessa Stockard has had 20 solo shows since 1999 in Australia and the USA, and been in many more group shows in Sydney, Melbourne, Hong Kong, New York, Berkeley and Portland and throughout regional NSW.  Her prizes include Highly Commended, Goulburn Regional Gallery, 2013; Finalist, Portia Geach Memorial Award, 2017; and repeat Finalist, Archibald Prize, 2017 & 2018.  She has recently accepted a residency at Chateau Orquevaux, France.