Yvonne Abercrombie is a contemporary artist living in Helensville just north of Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. Applying the figure to an abstract landscape is where Yvonne’s practice is situated. Yvonne combines personal narratives and imagination with an exploration and development of the painting process.
It was so lovely for me to speak to someone I know quite well and a friend and discover so much about her work. In this episode Yvonne talks about her love of traditional hearty cooking and how that translates into her paintings and how she handles paint, and her love for dressing well and accessorising and how that contrasts with the use of colour in her work.
We talk about how painting realistically felt disappointing to Yvonne, how she finally found her identity and ways to express her personal stories in a less realistic form during her masters degree and how she transitioned from studying painting at uni to managing her own painting practice and earning power.
Yvonne describes her work as abstract figuration paintings - personal or reimagined narratives but not necessarily expressed in the traditional way, that develop organically. Largely about the human condition, existence, who and what we are. She shares why she likes to paint the naked form, exposing rawness and vulnerability and symbolising the narrative.
Yvonne goes into great detail about her painting process, which is fascinating, and her yearning and drive to create something she has never seen before.
We discuss how she landed into community art spaces, how working in these diverse artistic environments contributes to her art practice and the benefits she sees in community art galleries.
Yvonne is showing her latest work in a joint show entitled Reimagined by the Muse, which opens this week on June 25th and runs until July 10th 2024, at The Frame Workshop and Gallery in Herne Bay Auckland.
Details of some of Yvonne's painterly figures
