Artist Spotlight:B.Twomey

We sit down and chat with B.Twomey, the artist featured in Kyle and Leslie's Block House this year, to chat all things life, art and of course The Block!

Meet B.Twomey artist behind the stunning 'Beach Boardwalk' used in Kyle and Leslies kitchen as you enter into the butlers, future buyers can make themselves a cuppa and stare at this stunning piece!

Tell us a bit about yourself…

Hi, I’m Bernadette, everyone calls me B! I live in Brisbane and spend nearly everyday painting from my home studio or at my little art gallery on the hill in Stafford Heights.

How long have you been producing your art?

I have been creative since high school, working in and around all aspects of creative industries, music & audio, design and animation and now back to my favourite medium of painting.

Where do you draw inspiration from?

I love colour and combinations of colour, the style I paint lends itself beautifully to being pushed around and dictated to by new colour schemes so I can keep painting new versions of my distinct style and still create something new each time.

B has a distinct style which is so easy to love the bright colours the link to nature, her work is fun and brightens any space, we fell in love as soon as we saw it and so did Leslie in House 1. Who is proving to have a keen eye for stunning art.

How would you describe your art?

Whimsical botanicals but also messy botanicals. I’ve merged my initial love for abstract art with my new love for botanical shapes and the carry over of the abstract is lots of drips and splats and chaos, all pulled into the tapestry of organic shapes and silhouettes.

Your art features on The Block this year?

In the new year I was approached by Artist Lane to join their collection of Australian artists. Through having my work available with Artist Lane, I was able to catch the eye of Kyle & Leslie and they thought my piece ‘Beach Boardwalk’ was the perfect match for the coastal vibes of House One.

What does it mean for you to have your art featured on The Block and be a Block Shop artist?

I am utterly thrilled to be featured on The Block! When you see how much work goes into the renovations, the planning and designing followed by all the heavy lifting and hard work, it’s always such an honour to know that right at the end, once all the dust has settled, someone has thought that your creation would be the perfect cherry on top of the stunning new space. It’s the ultimate compliment.

Favourite Block couple?

Well I gotta say Kyle and Leslie, they just have such fabulous taste in art!

'Beach Boardwalk' by artist B.Twomey has been featured in House 1 on The Block 2023 in the kitchen / Butlers space and it was love at first site from Block Fans. Take a look at B's work here at The Block Shop.

Are there any particular artists that inspire you?

I love Ken Done, ever since I was a kid. His paintings are pure joy! I was lucky enough to see ‘Ken Done: Paintings You

Probably Haven’t Seen” exhibition in 2022 and it was just marvellous.

Where do you like to create your art?

I paint from my home studio in Brisbane. I have a gallery a few minutes up the road from home but I still like to paint at home.

My kids come in and talk to me, the dog runs through, the backdoor opens out to our very leafy, green Queensland backyard,

the sun sparkles on our pool and on the school holidays I don’t need to leave the house at all and those days are my favourite.

Do you have a playlist / podcast you like to create to?

Some days I play music all day, others I paint in silence. I’m a big fan of The Pixies so a lot of music from that era is on high rotation. In all honesty though, painting in silence is my preference. I really do sink down a rabbit hole when painting and I enjoy the state of mind that really tuning into a painting puts me in.

"I usually have around 20 paintings on the go at once and I slowly work my way around the studio painting what I can on each until the are too full of wet paint to continue, I then swap them for dry ones and keep adding layers" Says B.Twomey

What does a typical day look like for you?

I spend 3 days out of the week days painting, the other 2 at the gallery in the mornings, sorting paintings for shipping and planning events.

The days I paint are my favourites. I usually have around 20 paintings on the go at once and I slowly work my way around the studio painting what I can on each until the are too full of wet paint to continue, I then swap them for dry ones and keep adding layers. This makes it difficult to know how long each one takes ( a question I get asked a lot) but I’d say a couple are ready each few days and I’ve averaged that out to being about a week for each painting to be done in most cases.

How do you fit your art around life/kids?/work

I’m a full time artist so I treat it like any full time job and mostly try to get it done between 9-5, Monday-Friday. Once I’ve dropped the kids to school I can be home and painting by 8:45 and I’ll work through until 2:45. After the school run I will still come back to the studio for another hour or 2. The kids often come and stand with me while I’m painting and tell me about their day. It’s nice. By 5 I’m done and we all go get ready for the evening together so it’s a good balance.

Favourite holiday destination?

Apart from getting a good overseas trip in, my favourite place to visit locally is down around Armidale in the Northern Tablelands of NSW. It’s a pretty quick trip from Brisbane and the weather out there is always so lovely. Great food, lovely people and great art (Uralla Gallery). It was actually at the Armidale Regional Art Gallery that I saw Ken Done’s exhibition so it’s a really fabulous part of Australia full of hidden treasures.

B describes her art as "Whimsical botanicals but also messy botanicals. I’ve merged my initial love for abstract art with my new love for botanical shapes and the carry over of the abstract is lots of drips and splats and chaos, all pulled into the tapestry of organic shapes and silhouettes."

What would you buy yourself from The Block Shop?

I love the Reno Supplies section! We’ve been slowly renovating our old home in Brisbane for the past few years and the Reno Supplies section is the perfect place to find really beautiful fittings that can really give a fabulous finish to a room that may have just needed a basic coat of paint and not much more.

Oldest and/or daggiest thing you have in your house that should be thrown out but you just can’t bring yourself to?

I have an original sixties JH Lynch ‘Tina’ framed print. It’s faded and ripped in parts and the frame is falling apart but I love her and so many people visit and get quite sentimental about her if they had one in their homes as kids. I picked her up at a flea market about 20 years ago and just love her so much!

Favourite room in the house?

Our living room, it’s not the nicest room in the house (none of them are!) but it’s where we all come together and that’s what gives it its ‘soft place to fall’ vibe.

If you could renovate one room in your house which would it be?

My kitchen! It’s been put into a queue as we want to open the whole back of the kitchen up onto the adjoining deck but we need to do more work downstairs to get the deck in better shape so the kitchen comes after that. Sigh..

Have you built your own house?

No

Favourite artwork you own?

I have an original Mark Hetherington painting from 1995. It’s a man with a tattoo of Tatu from Fantasy Island.

Our favourite part of The Block is discovering new artist's and to hear this from B.Twomey, our day has been made,  "once all the dust has settled, someone has thought that your creation would be the perfect cherry on top of the stunning new space. It’s the ultimate compliment."

Most treasured possession (other than kids or partner!)

A 30 year old Fender semi-acoustic guitar I bought in the 1990’s. I played that guitar busking on the streets of Sydney and in tonnes of little pubs and clubs in my 20’s and it’s always been kept close by. Even when we sold up nearly everything we owned and took our 3 kids around Australia in a vintage caravan in 2014, we kept that guitar in an overhead cupboard.

Know anyone else who hasn’t been featured on The Block but should be?

Stephen Inglis’ work is beautiful. His sunlit paintings of Australian life are soft and dreamy. Plus he’s a super nice man.

Anything that you are loving at the moment that you would like to share with us?

I love making canvas swatches of my hand mixed paints. I have over 100 of them now. I cut little rectangles off my big roll of canvas paint on new colours as I create them. Not only are they a fabulous reference for paint colours, for myself and my clients to look through, but as a collection they just make me so happy to look at. I also have an old Pantone Colour Formula Guide from 1994, it’s also good to hold and look at and flip through and smell.

We want to say a huge heartfelt THANK YOU to B.Twomey we are so thrilled your art found it's way onto The Block 2023.

Which Block Couple are you? Leslie with a keen eye for beautiful art? Take the quiz here to find out.