A Raleigh abstract artist, a 1208 Barcroft home, and twelve original paintings built to live inside it: here is how Jenny Fassino's Barcroft Vanderbilt Collection came together for the 2026 Triangle Parade of Homes.

Inside this feature: who Raleigh abstract artist Jenny Fassino is, how five years in Japan shaped her approach to imperfection, what went into the twelve-piece Barcroft Vanderbilt Collection she created for the 2026 Triangle Parade of Homes, and where to see or commission her work.

If you walk through the 1208 Barcroft home during this year's Triangle Parade of Homes, you will pass twelve original paintings that did not exist a year ago. They were built, layer by layer, in a Raleigh studio for these exact rooms. That is the work of Jenny Fassino, a contemporary large-scale abstract artist based in Raleigh, North Carolina, and the 2026 art sponsor for the Vanderbilt Parade House.

Fassino has spent decades building a body of work around a simple idea: perfection has limits, and art does not. Her paintings are made in acrylic and mixed media, built through layers of color and texture that get added, covered, removed, and revealed until something with presence emerges. For the Barcroft home, that process resulted in a twelve-piece collection called the Barcroft Vanderbilt Collection, plus one additional framed piece being given away at a related Parade of Homes event. Here is how she describes her work, her process, and why this is her fifth year creating art for the Triangle Parade of Homes.

Who Is Jenny Fassino

Jenny Fassino is a contemporary abstract artist based in Raleigh, North Carolina, with roots in Fort Lauderdale and Miami. She has moved twelve times over the course of her life and traveled extensively through Japan, Thailand, Greece, Indonesia, Singapore, Turkey, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and Argentina, among other places.

She does not paint those places literally. Instead, she paints what stays with her after visiting them: the movement of water, the surface of an old wall, a rural rice field, the color of a particular sky, or simply the energy of a place. She works primarily in acrylic and mixed media on large-scale canvas, building compositions through repeated layers of color and mark-making until the piece finds its balance.

Her official bio describes the throughline in her work this way: "Perfect has limits. Art doesn't." That idea, rooted in imperfection as a source of character rather than a flaw, runs through everything she makes.

Fassino's paintings have been featured in the Triangle Parade of Homes, at Fairfield Chair Co. during High Point Market, in national and local design publications, and in curated interior projects. Her work is held in private collections throughout the United States.

Finding Her Language: Japan, Wabi-Sabi, and Decades of Trusting the Process

Art has been part of Fassino's life since childhood, but abstraction became her language over time because, in her words, it allows intuition to lead. A major turning point came from living in Japan for five years, where she studied various forms of Japanese art alongside the philosophy of Wabi-Sabi, the practice of embracing imperfection. That period continues to shape her work today.

Acrylic became her medium of choice because of how immediate and versatile it is. She can build a surface, disrupt it, remove it, and begin again, a process she compares directly to life itself: "You add a layer, change direction, start again, and somehow it all becomes part of the story."

She has been creating original art for decades, and she describes the biggest evolution in her practice as learning to trust her own eye. Her work has become more intuitive, more edited, and more confident over time. She is less interested in perfection and much more interested in creating something with presence and character, work defined by texture, movement, and layered surfaces that let earlier marks remain visible.

Her creative process rarely starts with a predetermined image. She typically begins with a base color, a feeling, a mark, or a shape that catches her attention in the moment, then responds to what happens next on the canvas. One mark leads to another, colors begin to interact, and at some point the painting starts to feel like it has its own voice. From there, her role becomes less about controlling the outcome and more about listening, responding, and knowing when to stop.

Her inspiration comes from architecture, nature, travel, old buildings, weathered surfaces, textiles, light, and water. For the past twenty years, she has kept a sketchbook with her, capturing details that catch her eye along the way.

Inside the Barcroft Vanderbilt Collection: Twelve Paintings, One Home

For the 1208 Barcroft home, Fassino worked from interior design boards shared early in the process by Alex of Dwell Proper, the home's interior designer. Those boards gave her an immediate sense of the home's colors, materials, textures, and overall mood. She was also drawn to Raleigh Custom Homes' English-inspired design for the property, describing the home as having a sense of history and character while still feeling completely current.

Her goal was to build twelve paintings that each had their own personality while still feeling connected to the home as a whole. As she put it, she did not want twelve versions of the same idea. Just as each room in the Barcroft home has its own character, each painting has its own point of view. Some pieces are softer and more restrained. Others carry more energy and gesture. The home's warm, natural interior palette shaped the paintings' colors, but Fassino also introduced unexpected color and movement to keep the collection from feeling predictable.

Key details on the collection:

• Twelve original large-scale paintings created specifically for the main living spaces of the 1208 Barcroft home.
• Palette informed by the home's warm, natural interior tones, balanced with unexpected color and movement.
• Each piece designed to have its own identity while contributing to a sense of continuity as visitors move through the home.
• Created for the 2026 Triangle Parade of Homes, where Fassino serves as art sponsor for the Vanderbilt Parade House.

Fassino says the most rewarding part of a project at this scale is watching paintings that lived in her studio for months finally become part of the rooms they were built for, and seeing how scale, light, architecture, and interiors change the way each piece feels once it is installed. Creating twelve original works for a single home also pushed her creatively, since each painting needed a strong identity of its own while still working in conversation with the others throughout the house.

The Story Behind the Giveaway Piece

Alongside the twelve-piece collection, Fassino created one additional framed painting that will be given away at a related Parade of Homes event. This piece has a different kind of history behind it. For several months, it sat on her easel in the studio while she worked on the rest of the Barcroft Vanderbilt Collection, and in the process, it absorbed colors, marks, textures, and layers from the other paintings as they developed.

Fassino describes it as a collection within the collection: a quiet record of the entire project and everything that happened along the way. It is a piece built from the same months of work as the other twelve, which is part of why she finds it especially meaningful that someone will get to take it home.

Five Years, One Parade: Her Run With the Triangle Parade of Homes

Since 2022, Fassino has created custom art for luxury builders participating in the Triangle Parade of Homes, and 2026 marks her fifth year in that role. Over that time, the event has become more than an annual commitment. It has connected her with designers, builders, realtors, and others in the local creative community, relationships she says she genuinely values.

Her connection to this particular home runs deeper than one project. She and Alex of Dwell Proper first collaborated years ago on a local fundraising project and have stayed connected ever since, and Alex now collects Fassino's art in her own home. Fassino's relationship with Raleigh Custom Homes also goes back to previous Parade of Homes projects, giving this collaboration an existing foundation of trust and familiarity.

Being named the 2026 art sponsor for the Vanderbilt Parade House means her work will be experienced by everyone who walks through a home built with what she describes as real intention and care. She hopes visitors stop in front of a painting and connect with something unexpected, whether that is a color, a texture, a mark, or simply the way the piece makes them feel.

What's Next for Jenny Fassino

Fassino says there is a lot happening in her studio right now. Beyond the Barcroft Vanderbilt Collection, she continues to create new large-scale paintings, smaller works on paper, and private commissions, alongside new ideas she is exploring for where to take her art next. She describes herself as looking forward to this next chapter, with more news to come.

Frequently Asked Questions About Jenny Fassino

Who is Jenny Fassino? Jenny Fassino is a contemporary large-scale abstract artist based in Raleigh, North Carolina, who works primarily in acrylic and mixed media on canvas. She is known for layered, texture-driven paintings shaped by extensive travel and five years living in Japan, where she studied Wabi-Sabi, the practice of embracing imperfection.

What is the Barcroft Vanderbilt Collection? The Barcroft Vanderbilt Collection is a set of twelve original large-scale paintings Jenny Fassino created for the main living spaces of the 1208 Barcroft home, built by Raleigh Custom Homes and designed by Alex of Dwell Proper, for the 2026 Triangle Parade of Homes.

What is the Triangle Parade of Homes? The Triangle Parade of Homes is an annual showcase of newly built luxury homes from Triangle-area builders. Since 2022, Jenny Fassino has served as a featured artist creating custom art for luxury builders participating in the event, and 2026 marks her fifth year in that role.

What is Jenny Fassino's artistic style? Fassino describes her work as contemporary abstract with a strong emphasis on texture, movement, and layered surfaces. She builds large-scale acrylic and mixed media paintings intuitively, letting earlier marks remain visible and treating imperfection as part of each piece's character rather than something to correct.

Where can I see or buy Jenny Fassino's art in Raleigh? Her work can be found through her website, jennyfassino.com, and on Instagram at @jennyfassino, where she shares new paintings, studio work, collections, and upcoming collaborations. Her paintings have also been featured in the Triangle Parade of Homes and at Fairfield Chair Co. during High Point Market.

Does Jenny Fassino take commissions? Yes. Fassino works directly with homeowners, collectors, and designers and welcomes commissions for clients who want a piece created specifically for their space. She can be contacted through her website, jennyfassino.com, or Instagram, @jennyfassino.

Why It Matters

A home built with intention deserves art that was built with the same intention, and that is the case Fassino's work makes room by room throughout the Barcroft home. Twelve paintings created specifically for twelve moments in one house is not a small undertaking, and it reflects a level of collaboration between artist, designer, and builder that Raleigh's design community has clearly built over years, not months.

It is also a reminder of what the Triangle Parade of Homes has grown into locally: not just a showcase of construction and design, but a recurring collaboration between builders, interior designers, and working artists who keep choosing to build something together, year after year. Fassino's fifth year in that rotation is proof the relationships behind these homes outlast any single project.
If a single color, texture, or brushstroke in the Barcroft home stops a visitor mid-step this year, that is exactly the moment Fassino says she is working for.

Where to Find Jenny Fassino's Work

Website: jennyfassino.com

Instagram: @jennyfassino

On view: the 1208 Barcroft home, Vanderbilt Parade House, during the 2026 Triangle Parade of Homes

Commissions: available directly through her website or Instagram for homeowners, collectors, and designers

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Save this feature. Walk the Barcroft home this Parade of Homes season and see if a Fassino painting stops you mid-step. Then come back and tell us which one.