Discover the Magic Behind the UK’s Favourite Flower Paintings

Explore the magic behind the glittery flowerscapes…

In this personal video diary one of the UK’s most iconic British contemporary artists, Yvonne Coomber, invites you to discover the inspiration behind the glittery flower paintings as she reveals what compels her to create such heart-stirring works of art. Yvonne’s paintings of wildflowers celebrates the beauty of nature found in the Devon countryside and beyond…

Transcript:

When I was a child I think I dream’t of being an artist, it always felt like an occupation where you could be completely yourself. In my early 20’s I travelled a lot and I spent a few years traveling with a horse drawn community completely off-grid. All those experiences and colours and influences feed into my practice now undoubtedly.

If I wasn’t an artist now; I have such profound love of flowers, I think I would love to be a florist or definitely being wanting to do something really connected with nature. I do find something really very very special about September; the gathering of all the things that you’ve planted, so you’ve kind of put all your dreams out and then in the autumn time there’s a reward for that.

The first thing that I do is go to my little shed and choose the canvas that I’m going to paint on and I never ever paint unless I kind of feel really full of something that I want to pour onto my canvas. All the colours that I use are created by me; I never use colours straight from the paint tube, all of them are like a chemical journey.

I line up the pots of paint up with different consistencies; I get baskets of rags and paint brushes and pallet knives and then I get stuck in. Literally pour myself and my dreams, my hopes and fears and a whole lot unto the canvas and it feels like living entity, it feels that I put all of me.

I absolutely love living in Totnes, there’s many self-built projects; there’s Totnes pound. It’s sort of like it’s really trying to create another way of living that’s deeply based on community. It’s really great for me to be showing my work in my hometown and lots of people are coming from far and wide.

I’m very excited about how the business is growing. I’m really excited about all the possibilities and I have a really, really fabulous team to support me. It’s very important to me that I respond to each comment, because I just really value my very lovely and very loyal following.

If I was going to give any advice to young and aspiring artists, it will be really apply yourself and be completely dedicated and with that I think actually anything in the world is possible.