Meet the Christian Speed Painter Who Raised $2.75 Million at a Trump Charity Auction
You may not have heard of Vanessa Horabuena, but she’s an artist who gained significant attention in the art world earlier this year thanks to an auction she held with President Trump. At a New Year’s Eve event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, one of her paintings fetched a staggering $2.75 million.
She’s known for her Christian-themed paintings and her incredibly fast painting speed. She often performs live painting demonstrations, wielding her brush in front of amazed audiences, quickly creating what she calls “worship paintings” – all featuring religious imagery.
Trump himself told the crowd, “There’s a young lady named Vanessa, she’s one of the greatest artists in the world. She can paint a beautiful portrait for the White House slowly, or she can do an incredible painting in ten minutes.”
Normally, her original paintings sell for $15,000 to $40,000. Prints are much cheaper, starting at just over $11. We contacted her, but she hasn’t responded yet.
So, who is this artist?
Horabuena is an artist from Arizona who has loved painting and been religious since childhood. She says she became a devout Christian after attending a Christian summer camp at age 13. On her personal website, she describes a difficult childhood, including being sexually abused by several family members. At age 19, she struggled with her sexual orientation, distancing herself from her faith and even abandoning art.
“I felt safer with women than with men. That was a very difficult time. I remember being so sad knowing that I couldn’t dedicate my life to God,” she told the Christian Broadcasting Network. (She later added that she has since overcome her attraction to women.) After talking to a pastor, she returned to church eight years later and picked up her paintbrush again. She firmly believes that when she paints, God is working through her hands.
She started doing these speed-painting performances to share the religious passion that painting brings her with other Christians. She sees the painting process as a metaphor: the initially chaotic brushstrokes eventually come together to form a complete portrait, just like God’s unpredictable plan. “We make mistake after mistake, and pain and loss leave their marks on the canvas of our lives, leaving us overwhelmed by the mess before us,” she wrote on her website. “But if we allow Him to continue to shape us, we will eventually see how these brushstrokes become a beauty we could never have created on our own.”
A woman of strong faith,
her performance art blends art, prayer, and dance. She wields her paintbrush like a fencer, with exaggerated movements. After a few strokes, she raises her arms as if asking God to guide her hand.
She posted a video on Facebook promoting her gallery in Tempe, Arizona, showing her painting in a dimly lit room, illuminated only by the light of candles held by the audience. She wrote that the space is “perfect for morning Bible study, or simply looking at art and spending time with God!”
But she’s not just a devout believer. According to Meidas Touch, which first reported on this, she’s also a conspiracy theorist. In November 2023, she paused posting painting videos and instead posted on Facebook: “The moon landing never happened. They lied, lied, and kept lying.”
“It’s impossible. You can’t get through the radiation belt, not even with today’s technology,” she continued in the comments. “We didn’t even have cell phones back then. You’re telling me we sent people to the moon in the 60s? Impossible. It never happened.”
In other posts, she also seems to question whether the Earth is round, hinting at her belief in the long-debunked flat-earth theory.
A chaotic mix of art, politics, and religion
This is how her New Year’s auction came about. Trump said the proceeds would go to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and a sheriff’s department (reportedly in Palm Beach). At the auction, Horabuena, barefoot and with hands covered in bright blue and yellow paint, worked on a black canvas, quickly transforming it into a large image of Jesus inspired by the Shroud of Turin.
This painting is arguably her signature piece. She firmly believes the Shroud of Turin is authentic—that is, that Jesus’ face was miraculously imprinted on the cloth after his crucifixion.
She wrote on Facebook: “This image could only have been formed by a strong light shining through the cloth, imprinting the image onto it.” (In fact, this object has long been suspected of being a medieval forgery, and the controversy and research surrounding it have continued for centuries.)
“The power and presence of the Holy Spirit when I paint this is indescribable. Every time I paint it, I’m incredibly moved and feel so close to God’s heart,” she continued. “Each painting is a little different, with its own unique qualities. They all make me long for the day… when I can paint what Jesus looks like in heaven.”
She also loves to paint Jesus and the American flag, blending Christianity and patriotism. Trump has also become a favorite subject, sometimes with added religious elements, such as a cross on a hill or a figure kneeling in prayer. She also sells prints of three paintings of the assassinated right-wing activist Ashli Babbitt, with grand titles: “A Hero’s Tribute,” “A Patriot’s Tribute,” and “American Martyr.”
Over the past year or so, she has grown closer to the Trump camp. Before the election, she delivered seven paintings to Trump’s resort in Miami. Then, at the Freedom Ball (one of the balls Trump attended after his inauguration), she sketched a portrait of Trump on the spot to the tune of Kari Jobe’s song “The Blessing,” titled “Praying for Our President.”
In May of this year, Trump was dissatisfied with his official portrait hanging in the Colorado State Capitol and commissioned Horabuena to paint a temporary replacement. The White House reportedly donated the painting to Colorado, and it was quickly hung in the State Capitol.
According to Trump, her paintings are also hanging in the White House. Trump said at an auction that he “replaced many people’s paintings with these portraits.” In June of this year, Horabuena wrote on her website that she drove 33 hours to deliver a portrait of Trump to the White House. She said the paintings were gifts for Trump, former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, former District of Columbia Attorney Jeannie Rhee, and former Assistant Attorney General Pam Bondi.
According to her Instagram, the night before Trump’s New Year’s Eve party, she gave Trump a one-hour private painting lesson, creating two portraits of Jesus. “I know he felt God’s presence,” she said.
At Mar-a-Lago, she painted while playing Gregory Bruno’s song “Hallelujah (In a Moment),” briefly turning the president’s holiday party into a large church service.
“This moment wasn’t about me, and it wasn’t about a painting… This moment was about President Trump putting the worship of God first,” she wrote on Facebook.
Trump loves these charity auctions.
Charity art auctions involving Trump have made headlines before. During the 2016 election, an investigation into his use of charitable funds revealed he had used money from the Trump Foundation to buy two portraits of himself. In 2014, he spent $10,000 at an auction on a painting by Argentine artist Havi Schanz. In 2007, Melania Trump spent $20,000 at an auction on a portrait of her husband painted live by Michael Israel.
This time, Trump himself acted as the auctioneer, starting the bidding for Horabuena’s painting at $100,000, telling the crowd, “She’s the hottest.” Among the guests that night were Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The painting was ultimately purchased by an elderly white couple whose identities remain unknown. Horabuena wore a sequined hat, a black strapless top with a white collar, a black bow tie, and a short black blazer.
“These people are loaded,” Trump assured the crowd.
In a video of the event, Horabuena held up the finished painting to scattered applause. But the artist herself felt it was a profound spiritual experience.
“Some moments are moments of God’s manifestation. This was definitely one of them,” she wrote on Facebook. “He touched the heart of the greatest leader in the world and poured the Holy Spirit into a group of people who never expected this to happen, but who opened their hearts.”
