YVONNE BROOKES

Here's one of my paintings for the ’Queens of the Commonwealth’ project,
we were given photographs and uncut interviews for us to get a sense of our models.

I wanted to show off Yvonne Brooks' wonderful personality, she's always someone who is smiling and talks quite honestly with her hands. As someone who wears a lot of jewelry, I noticed she wore a matching amber jewelry set which I believe means she takes pride in her appearance and I didn't want that to be overlooked. So I decided to take an abstract approach incorporating her stone's pattern into the background and clothing. The Amber stone and colour can also be seen as warm and welcoming which is something I really felt with Yvonne's interview, another one of the stone's properties mean that it preserves things much like how Yvonne also preserves women's rights. Finally, the use of circles and lines across the painting symbolises her connections between communities.

When I first met Yvonne, I felt like I met a family member, she's so incredibly sweet and welcoming. Witnessing her see the painting for the first time made my stomach drop but knowing that she was so incredibly happy with the results has made this all so incredibly worth it!

The final piece is a one-of-a-kind 12”x16” digital painting printed on Hahnemühle German Etching paper.