Formerly George
Irene is a country girl with a bright and colourful personality that’s reflected in her paintings. The vitality of her pictures hides her tough country upbringing.
She was born in Herefordshire and lived for many years in the Golden Valley. She spent many years working in the fields, picking potatoes, strawberries, blackcurrants and apples to support her family of six.
She moved to the Cotswolds in the eighties, working in various jobs, including cleaning, cooking, as bar maid and waitress, and as a popular nanny, to keep her family as they grew and developed.
One day, at the lowest point of her life, as she scribbled on the back of a envelope containing a bill she couldn’t pay, a tiny row of crazy people wearing large hats appeared. She had shivers down her neck and felt strangely excited. That little tribe stayed in her mind for many years but without a home.
Travelling
She eventually met Vince Tyack, an entrepreneur who liked a challenge; so much so, he decided to farm ostriches and had travelled the world studying and buying ostriches. He entertained Irene by telling her of his travels, particularly to Africa and the desert, and she realised at that moment that the little tribe with the crazy hats should live in the desert.
At last they had found a home! From this point on Irene began to paint them in many bizarre and amusing situations. One beautiful evening while enjoying a glass of wine, Vince suggested her tribe should be called The Yellow Hat Tribe. They both agreed the name was perfect and from that moment the tribe took on a life of their own. Irene and Vince have since married and now share their life with an increasingly exuberant Yellow Hat Tribe.
Making a Home
The Yellow Hat Tribe
The Yellow Hat Tribe Gallery is bursting with vitality, colour and sunshine, full of bright, humorous and exciting paintings created by the artist Irene Tyack.
Much of her wonderful work features the Yellow Hat Tribe in amusing and crazy situations; dancing, singing, playing music, riding crazy bikes and turning everyday life into funny, colourful situations. It’s not difficult to understand the universal appeal of her paintings – they exude an irresistibly mood lifting, approach to life.
The Yellow Hat Tribe has been featured on Heart of the Country one of ITV’s longest running programmes, and as a result there was a huge increased interest in Irene’s work. People now travel from far and wide to visit the gallery. Irene’s paintings hang in private collections worldwide and have been acknowledged by many highly successful exhibitions in London including Fine Lot, St James, The McNeil Fine Art Gallery, Radlett.
