In conversation with Yanny Petters, art historian Jean Ryan chats with the OCG artist, Wednesday 3 November 2021, 7pm

7pm

Wednesday 3rd of November 2021

Olivier Cornet Gallery, Dublin

A free event but due to Covid-related restrictions, until further notice, only 12 seats are available at the gallery. Please book asap by contacting us at info@oliviercornetgallery.com. The event will also be live streamed on the gallery's Facebook and YouTube pages.

Jean Ryan is an Irish art historian who has a special interest in artworks which are influenced by literature. This approach enables her to introduce Irish artists from eras as diverse as the 18th century through to contemporary practitioners who are still influenced by stories of any genre. Through storytelling she has introduced people to artworks held in some of the best Irish museums, public galleries, arts centres, private collections and national institutions. Her work has taken her to places as diverse as Dublin Castle, Rua Red, Municipal Gallery dlrLexicon, Christchurch Cathedral Dublin, National Design &Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, and regularly at the Olivier Cornet Gallery in Dublin (with the feature Once Upon a Time in an Art Gallery).

Jean was on The National Storytellers of Ireland Committee. She has an M.Phil. In Irish Art History.

Yanny Petters has been painting exquisitely detailed studies of wild plants for the past 20 years, all of which from life.

Fascinated by colour, form and detail, her love and interest in botanical art stemmed from her work as a signwriter where plant themes were common in decorative design and the work included Trompe l'oeil techniques. As well as working in oils and watercolours Yanny also specialises in 'reverse painting on glass' (or 'Verre Églomisé'), a technique she has been developing since her signwriting years when she came across it through doing decorative pub mirrors and panels. The technique was explored by the Blue Rider group of artists in the 1920s who turned what had been a folk art into fine art. Indeed, artists of the calibre of Kandinsky, Marc, Klee and Münter produced glass paintings. Nowadays, there are very few artists using the technique as a fine art.

Yanny has had many successful exhibitions since 1995. She exhibited with landscape painter Michael Gemmell in ‘The Living Bog’ which featured her Paintings on Glass of Irish Bog Plants, at the Davis Gallery, Dublin in 2003. She was honoured to be included in ‘1000 Years of Botanical Art’ at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, in 2005 as part of the Dr Shirley Sherwood collection. Since that she has had a paintings exhibited in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery, Kew Gardens, London, as part of ‘The Art of Plant Evolution’ (2009) and the 'Botanical Art in the 21st Century' (2014) exhibitions.

‘Field Work’ was a solo exhibition curated by Olivier Cornet at the Riverside Gallery in Arklow, Co. Wicklow in 2008. In 2011 Yanny was invited to exhibit ‘The Living Line’ at the Droichead Arts Centre in Drogheda, Co. Louth, which featured large scale drawings from Yanny’s collection of works on a theme of wetland plants.

A number of her Glass Paintings are in the Wicklow Mountains National Park headquarters. In 2010 Clonskeagh Hospital acquired a number of Yanny’s works for their new nursing unit through the HSE Percent for Art Scheme.

In 2012, as part if the ‘4x4’ show at the Olivier Cornet Gallery in Temple Bar, Dublin, one of her paintings was acquired by the Office of Public Works for the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, Dublin.

'Floral Alchemy', a solo exhibition of her Verre Eglomisé paintings was shown at the Olivier Cornet Gallery in 2013.

In 2016 Yanny had a second solo show of Verre Eglomisé paintings at the Olivier Cornet Gallery called "Come with me, I'll show you something beautiful". Her painting of a Teasel was acquired by Dr Shirley Sherwood for her collection in the UK.

A solo exhibition in 2019 at the Olivier Cornet Gallery 'Hedgerow - stories from a linear world' continued Yanny's work relating to hedgerows, that iconic element of the Irish country side. It included Verre Eglomisé paintings as well as drawings and watercolours

Yanny has exhibited work in two exhibitions at the National Botanic Gardens in connection with the Irish Society of Botanical Artists: Aibítir: The Irish Alphabet in Botanical Art (2014) and Plandaí Oidhreachta; Heritage Irish Plants (2016).

In 2020, the artist took part in an exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin: 'Drawn from Nature: Irish Botanical Art', curated by Patricia Butler and Janet McLean.

Yanny shows annually with the Olivier Cornet Gallery at VUE in the RHA, as well as the annual Watercolour Society of Ireland, The Dublin Painting & Sketching Club and the Botanical and Floral Art in Bloom exhibitions, the latter held during the Bloom Gardens Festival in Dublin.

Yanny also carries out private commissions.

Her work features in the following collections:

The National Gallery of Ireland - The National Museum of Ireland - Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, Kew, London (UK) - OPW Wicklow Mountains National Park, Co. Wicklow - Connemara National Park - HSE Community Nursing Unit at Clonskeagh - Byrne Group, Greystones, Co. Wicklow - private collections.

Yanny is a member of The Watercolour Society of Ireland, The Irish Society of Botanical Artists, Visual Artists Ireland, Dublin Painting & Sketching Club, Signal Arts Centre Society and Dublin Naturalists Field Club. She is represented by the Olivier Cornet Gallery in Dublin where her current show 'Field of Vision' can be seen until the 6th of November 2021.

Photo credits: Jean Ryan outside the OCG by Carol Ryan - Yanny Petters in her studio by Simon Lazewski.