Yanny Petters

Yanny Petters is a botanical portraitist from County Wicklow in Ireland. She works exclusively from life, either in her studio in Glendarragh, Newtownmountkennedy, County Wicklow, or out in the midst of her subject's habitats. Yanny paints in a variety of media, including oils and water colours, and she produces exquisite drawings and fine art nature prints. She also specialises in Verre Églomisé, or painting on glass, an old and rare technique she has been developing and adapting to suit her plant portraits since her years working as a sign writer in the 1980s. Her paintings are in a number of important collections including the Dr. Shirley Sherwood Collection at Kew Gardens, London, and the Office of Public Works in Dublin. She is a member of Visual Artists Ireland, the Irish Society of Botanical Artists (ISBA), the Water Colour Society of Ireland and the Dublin Painting & Sketching Club.

Her solo show Hedgerows, stories from a linear world" is now showing at the Oliver Cornet Gallery, Great Denmark street Dublin 1.

In her exhibition at the Olivier Cornet Gallery artist Yanny Petters will present a series of Verre Eglomisé paintings from that iconic element of the Irish countryside, the Hedgerow. Exploring her local hedgerows she draws on this many-faceted world to create gilded and painted treasures to inspire the viewer, that we might seek out the wonders of what we so often discount as a bunch of weeds!

The hedgerow goes back a long way in our history, dividing and yet holding together a rich habitat that remains after our forests were cleared. Land boundaries can be traced back to Neolithic times and the circa-12th-century Townland boundaries are the country’s longest standing land divisions.

At a time when farming practices are changing in scale many of these valuable habitats are being removed. While we might plant new hedges, it is the ancient ones which support up to 3000 organisms from flowers and trees, birds and animals to insects and microscopic creatures, without which our land would become desolate.

As we become more concerned about a changing climate we will look to hedgerows to serve as windbreaks, to shelter our livestock, reduce soil erosion, aid drainage and provide homes for beneficial predators who protect our food crops from pests. These harbours of biodiversity should be cherished for the health of our future generations. 

In her work, Yanny Petters raises awareness of our wild plants, opening our eyes to a myriad of wonders in our local environment. It's not just a bunch of weeds, but truly amazing and beautifully evolved species living in symbiotic harmony.