Thousands to get insight into artist

A Tauranga artist is about to go global as an international television crew arrives to feature her and her talents.

Watercolour and oil artist Jenny Coker will feature in an episode of the Australian show Colour In Your Life, which screens here in New Zealand on free-to-air, overseas on Sky TV, Foxtel Aurora 183, and Virgin Airways.

Ms Coker will be filmed in her Tauranga studio next Thursday .

The episode is expected to attract thousands of viewers around the world.

Colour In Your Life offers an insight into an artist's studio and home, as well as delving into what makes an artist tick.

"I'm so excited about this opportunity and more than happy to share my art, home and life with people.

"I've been holding workshops in my home during the past year - I love sharing my passion with people and my life is bountiful," she said.

Ms Coker has not always been a painter - she was a freelance architectural illustrator for more than 15 years and used spare moments to develop her knowledge of fine art.

But it was the increasingly poor health of her husband which was the catalyst for Ms Coker switching up gears and really making a go of her art.

"When my husband went into care in 2010, I pondered what I was going to do with the next quadrant of my life.

"He left me eyeing opportunities to respond to life for both of us. Botanical illustrations were a favourite which blossomed into home and garden vignettes. Much of my botanical knowledge developed through illustrating landscape designs for commercial designers."

Ms Coker specialises in home and garden vignettes and runs regular workshops from her home and studio on the city waterfront.

As an avid gardener, Ms Coker also takes pleasure from baking and incorporating edible flowers from her own garden into that baking.

Previous artists featured include the renowned Ken Done, Joseph Zbucvic, Timo Rinnali and Anthony Breslin.

Ms Coker said she was hugely influenced by her time in France and Italy as a teenager, working as a nanny on the Cote D'Azur.

The screening date of Ms Coker's episode is yet to be confirmed.