A sheer descent fountain cascades over a ceramic and stone composition that hovers over the black pond below, in Key West.
A fountain wall in Key West, combines multi-colored ceramic tiles and patinaed copper.
On the harbour in Old Town Key West, an uneven and broken Mexican stone surface creates a natural flowing waterfall for a fountain.
Concrete pavers get a special treatment on the pool deck giving them a greenish patina, while the bottom of the moasaic, black river rock seamlessly descend into the pool liner tiles.
A 135-foot-long mosaic seawall runs below groupings of coastal sea oats, along a popular walk on Smathers Beach in Key West.
Debra Yates is proud of her fourth-generation Key West roots—she is a so-called “conch”—and the island, long known as a haven for emerging and established artists, gave her a unique perspective from an early age. Today, Debra Yates creates abstract paintings for exterior spaces, erecting them as mosaic tile walls. Now resident in Lake Worth, she was recently awarded the prestigious Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach Landscape award.
It was her friend and mentor Roberto Burle Marx who was the biggest influence on her work. A renowned Brazilian artist and landscape designer, Marx is frequently called the “father of modern landscape architecture.” Prominent in efforts to conserve Brazil’s rainforests, he has no fewer than 20 plant species named after him. For many years, Yates made an annual pilgrimage to see Marx in Rio, visits that inspired her to bring her abstract paintings into the landscapes she designs.
Site-specific, each of her works is intended to be a focal point. Yates also creates the pools, fountains and gardens that complete the outdoor settings. The mosaic “paintings” are installed by the artist, their tiles having been broken with a hammer, piece by piece. Custom-made copper sections are often added to the compositions to lend texture.
For almost four decades, Yates has combined bold graphic designs and a strong sense of color to produce these powerful and distinctive “garden compositions.”