OCG artist Yanny Petters illustrates An Post stamps on changing leaves

"I’m excited for the launch of ‘Changing Leaves’ when An Post will launch the stamps I was commissioned to illustrate earlier this year...

...I’m delighted with how the finished designs look, with a little sparkle of gold and the rich watercolours making the images glow. Thanks to the team at An Post and to Jenny Dempsey, the designer. The leaves are changing colour, it’s my favourite time of the year."

Yanny Petters

The Olivier Cornet Gallery is delighted to share the news that our gallery artist Yanny Petters, a leading botanical artist and plant portraitist, renowned for depictions of Irish wild habitats on verre églomisé and other media, was commissioned by An Post, Ireland's National Post Service, to illustrate a set of three stamps on changing leaves.

Designed by Jenny Dempsey, the stamps depict:

• An Bheith Gheal, Silver Birch, Betula pendula
  
  
• An Caorthann, Rowan, Sorbus aucuparia
  
  
• An Sceach Gheal, Hawthorn, Crataegus monogyna

In their September Quarter newsletter The Collector 3/25, An Post's philatelic services explained that this "set of tree-themed stamps features leaves from three of our most renowned native species: silver birch, rowan (mountain ash) and hawthorn, capturing their characteristic forms and vivid autumn shades".

The newsletter also stresses the vital part played by trees in Ireland, ecologically as well as culturally: "Various native tree species grow in Ireland, including oak, silver birch, ash, hazel, hawthorn, scots pine, rowan (mountain ash) and willow. They all have important roles to play in our ecosystem and, over the years, many of them have been essential to the rural economy and have featured prominently in material culture. Irish folklore is full of stories, beliefs and custom relating to these important florae, which glorify our landscapes and are at the heart of so much rich tradition."

The three stamps and the FDC below will be issued today, Thursday 25 September 2025.