Vanessa Jackson was born in 1953 and lives and works in London. She was educated at St Martins School of Art 1971-75 and the Royal College of Art 1975-78. Between 1988 and 1997 she was Senior Lecturer and then Head of Painting at Winchester School of Art. She is now a tutor at the Royal College of Art and the Royal Academy Schools. She has exhibited widely in Britain and abroad, and has spent some time in the USA, in New York and two residencies as a Yaddo Fellow in Saratoga Springs. In 1995 she spent three months at the British School at Rome as an Abbey Fellow.

Recent solo shows have included Inside Space gallery, London 2002; Art Inc, New York 2003; and Keith Talent Gallery, London 2005. Vanessa Jackson is widely respected as a lecturer and energetic contributor to numerous art-world causes and committees, whose own powerful, colourful, and technically extraordinary paintings are now receiving the recognition they deserve.