Yvonne Coleman first began painting in her mid 6Os. She had retired from an active life on a Taranaki farm and began attending a weekly painting class with the New Plymouth artist Tom Kreisler. He recognised her natural ability as an intuitive painter and enthusiastically encouraged her work.
Coleman first exhibited some of her work tentatively in the local ‘TSB Review’ exhibition at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth. After the positive response to the display of her work she was offered a solo exhibition at the same gallery in 1987.
The increasing interest in naive painting and artists was documented in a recent Kaleidoscope programme on three painters, Coleman, Ivan Hill and Triska Blumenfield, indicating a strong following of naive painting in this country.
The works in this exhibition will include scenes of her family, Taranaki and a recently completed series of views of Auckland where she regularly visits. Yvonne Coleman’s paintings are now included in numerous public and private collections both in New Zealand and overseas.