You may have noticed our obsession with bold colours lately. So it felt very fitting to have artist B Twomey join us on the blog to share her layered, colourful botanical paintings with us.
Describing her art as abstract botanical, we love her signature style and strong colour palette. Her art is all about joy, colour, and connection.
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A full time artist, B creates magical works of art from her home studio in Brisbane.
“I’m B, short for Bernadette. I’m a full time artist who grew up in Far North Queensland and now call Brisbane home. Coming from the far north, I have always felt deeply connected to wild places, big skies and bold colour,” smiles B.
My art reflects that. It’s joyful, layered and full of imagined botanicals.
“I live in Brisbane with my husband and three kids. I also have a home studio that opens onto our leafy street. It’s filled with light and is a space I absolutely love being in. It’s where the work happens, but also where the inspiration lives.”
Art has always been part of B’s life. It’s who she is.
“Art has been a thread running through my life since high school. I took every art subject I could, and never stopped creating. I was always sketching, writing or performing,” B recalls.
“Eventually, I went on to study digital design, but circled back to painting. There’s something about acrylic on canvas that just feels like home to me.
“I’m incredibly grateful that art is my full time work and my full time obsession. I treat my painting practice with care and structure, but the real magic happens when I can just let go and paint freely. Where I’m not tied to a brief and I paint for no one but myself. I think it’s when I create my best works.”
The colourful botanical paintings B creates are full of life.
“My style of art doesn’t fit neatly into any one category… and I like it that way,” smiles B. “I call it messy botanicals. I guess you’d call it kind of expressive floral abstraction. Part garden, part feeling, part dream.
“My style blends loose forms with hints of natural structure. There’s often a bit of chaos in there, but also rhythm and repetition that tie it altogether. The end result often gets described as joyous.
My work is about joy, colour, and connection — and I love seeing how it lives on in people’s homes.
These abstract botanicals are bursting with colour.
“Colour is my favourite part of the process. I am constantly taking mental snapshots, from someone’s outfit, to roadside flowers, summer skies or a bag of sweets,” B explains.
“Sometimes I have a hero colour in mind when I start, but the painting usually takes over and tells me where it wants to go.
“I’m drawn to plant shapes and natural forms, but I’m not trying to replicate them. I invent most of the botanical elements in my work. They’re based on memory, emotion and imagination.
I paint a lot from memory. Often pulling colour ideas from seasons I’m not currently in. It’s like colour time travel!
The process to create one of these colourful botanical paintings is hidden amongst the layers.
“I usually start with a background wash of colour to set the tone,” says B.
“Then I build up the painting in layers, shapes, marks, organic lines, letting the piece evolve as I go. I work intuitively, especially when I’m painting for the joy of it.
“When I fall into a good rhythm, it’s almost meditative. That’s when the paintings surprise me, and those are the pieces I end up loving the most.”
Thank you so much to B for sharing her beautiful colourful botanical paintings with us. You can explore her collection on her website, or find more colourful behind the scenes inspo on her Instagram.
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