I live, love and create in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. If you would like to contact me, here are some options:
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Vanessa Ali is a full-time artist, dividing her time between creating original paintings and working as a graphic and web site designer. During the 2020 COVID pandemic, Vanessa expanded her role to that of pattern surface designer with her work designing cloth face masks.
From a very early age, Vanessa displayed a love of design and creativity, from drawing and painting and a flair for understanding the impact and influence on us of the spaces where we live and work. Classes in art and design and drafting were always a part of her elective courses throughout her early school years and at high school.
At the University of Alberta, Vanessa took studio art classes in the department of Fine Arts that included live figure drawing, sculpture and painting. She graduated with a BA in Art History. Right after, she obtained a diploma in Architectural Technology from NAIT and worked for 10 years in a variety of architectural firms producing the plans and specifications for major projects, working in traditional hand-drafting methods and by using Computer Aided Design and Drafting (CADD).
After starting a family, Vanessa became a self-employed graphic designer and expanded into web site design, hosting and management, all under the umbrella of Ali Cat Graphics. Over the past few years, Vanessa has found the time to get back to her original passion of free-hand sketching and painting and she now splits her time equally between graphic/web design and creating the original works displayed on this website.
In addition to dabbling in visual arts, Vanessa loves to perform as a singer with her jazz ensemble JoySpring, to knit, crochet, make jewellery, play guitar and piano, garden and read great books. She lives with her husband, son and daughter who all patiently share space with all Vanessa's projects that continuously spread throughout the house and garden.
The primary forces in my work are colour and light. Whether creating a traditional landscape, exploring and capturing the negative spaces in a thicket of undergrowth or a forest of trees, studying the play of light and reflection on inanimate objects, colour and light make me swoon and yearn to portray their power and beauty. I use oil and acrylic on canvas; watercolour, gouache and coloured pencil on watercolour paper in my endeavour to capture movement, depth, life and light.
