Self-taught, Victoria Bracewell Lewis is based in Somerset, England, painting as VBL Atelier.
Before picking up a brush, she spent decades in design, photography, and creative direction. Her career took her from Cambridge to Central Asia, helping organisations find their voice in the early days of the internet. When life slowed down, her husband gave her the nudge to return to her first loves: art and animals. She taught herself to paint—with a little help from YouTube—and hasn't looked back.
Victoria is best known for richly textured portraits of pets and horses that capture character as much as likeness. She also paints landscapes, biophilic work, and Lifelines, an ongoing series of portraits honouring the family and friends who have shaped her life. Every painting in the series is a thank-you, and she suspects it will be a lifetime-long project.
Raised beside the Gulf and a former competitive swimmer, she paints the way she swam: all in. Her work is rooted in acrylics, layered with oils, oil pastels, and alcohol inks, alongside the unexpected—colour-shifting ChromaFlair, clay, glass, dried moss, and leaves. Look closely, because she likes to hide details in plain sight.