FORT MYERS, Fla. (Nov. 13, 2015) – “Coming Abstraction,” a solo show by printmaker and painter Barbara J. Yeomans, will debut at the Southwest Florida Community Foundation on Thursday, Dec. 1 until Jan. 31, 2016.
The show will feature one-of-a-kind hand pulled prints and paintings by Yeomans. The artist will donate 35 percent of sales to The Fund for the Arts of Southwest Florida, a fund of the Southwest Florida Community Foundation.
The exhibit will be open in the Community Hub, the office of the Community Foundation, located at 8771 College Parkway, Suite 201 in Fort Myers. Public viewing is Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Two artist receptions with Yeomans will take place at the Community Hub and are open to the public with advance reservations. The first will be held on Thursday, Dec. 10 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., and the second the following morning, Friday, Dec. 11 from 8 to 10 a.m. Refreshments will be served. Reservations are required by emailing rsvp@floridacommunity.com.
Yeomans was born in London in 1933. During WWII, her family home was bombed, and they had to relocate to the English countryside. Growing up during this turbulent time made an indelible mark on her, and she pursued arts and crafts at a young age. An arts scholarship allowed her to pursue a degree in Fashion at Cheltenham College of Art. While at college, she won design awards and studied under the leading artists of the day. In the 1950s, her college career was put on hold when she met and married a young American man, Sherrill Yeomans, stationed in England. She immigrated to America and raised a family while continuing her interest in the arts as a volunteer arts teacher in Fort Myers. In the 1970s and 80s, she created vibrant three-dimensional fabric wall hangings for various Southwest Florida interior decorators for homes and businesses throughout the region. After her husband’s death, Yeomans returned to school and enrolled in a printmaking class at a local college. There, she found a renewed passion for art making. For the past 30 years, she has honed her technique using experimental processes and materials, creating dynamic monotype prints, paintings and assemblages. During the years, she has had several one-woman shows in Florida, England, New Jersey and New York. Her work is sold exclusively in New York at the Broadfoot & Broadfoot Gallery and in England at Twenty-One B Gallery. Her work has been collected and placed in homes and businesses everywhere from Sag Harbor, Montreal, Calgary, New York to Milan and Hong Kong.
As leaders, conveners, grant makers and concierges of philanthropy, the Southwest Florida Community Foundation is a foundation built on community leadership with an inspired history of fostering regional change for the common good in Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry and Glades counties. The Community Foundation, founded in 1976, connects donors and their philanthropic aspirations with evolving community needs. With assets of more than $93 million, the Community Foundation has provided more than $61.2 million in grants and scholarships to the communities it serves. Last year, it granted more than $2.9 million to nonprofit organizations supporting education, animal welfare, arts, healthcare and human services. It also granted $782,000 in nonprofit grants including more than $551,000 in regional community impact grants and additional $450,000 in scholarship grants.
Those interested in seeing the show are asked to call the office in advance to assure that part of the exhibit located in meeting space is available for viewing. For more information about the Southwest Florida Community Foundation, call 239-274-5900 or visit www.floridacommunity.com.
