About Yo

My name is Yo Rühmer and I was born in Darmstadt in 1970, where I studied communication design. After graduating in 1995, I worked as a freelancer for various advertising agencies. I have been a freelance illustrator since 1999. After initially only drawing for advertising agencies, I now illustrate more for book and magazine publishers. During this gradual change, my target group gradually became younger and younger, but I don’t see myself as a pure children’s and schoolbook illustratorAs a balance to my purely digital work as an illustrator, I have been painting ‘en plein air’ since 2012, i.e. outdoors, mostly in nature, always with oil paints. I try to incorporate everything I learn about color moods and light into my digital painting style.

In May 2020, my book about plein air painting, in which I have packed everything I have learned and with which I want to share my enthusiasm with as many people as possible to motivate them to paint outside too. Its in German, but you can purchase the Ebook and use a translator app for PDF reader.

Since then I have also been giving plein air lessons: I offer individual workshops, (also in English!) group day workshops through Boesner and week-long painting trips through Artistravel, last two only in Geman language.

2021 Domestika published my Online Course Pleinair Oi Painting for Beginners.

I also maintain the website Pleinairmalerei.de. It’s a platform that I set up so that everyone who paints out here can present themselves, find each other, exchange ideas and network.

In 2025, I had the great honour of having one of my plein air paintings, which I painted in Brittany, selected by the Royal Society of Marine Artists (RSMA) and hung in their exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London in September. Read more in my Blog post.
Online Exhibition RSMA 2025 (Bild Nr. 280)

If you want to know more about me and my plein air painting:

I was visited in my “studio” from the Kunstblog Mannheim while painting, you can read more (in German) here:
Kunstblog-Mannheim

I was interviewed by Artistravel in German:
Instagram Interview

And in English
from the podcast Painting Insights
YouTubeVideoPodcast

and from BoldBrush:
YouTube interview

I welcome feedback, commissions for illustrations, workshop inquiries and, of course, interest in buying my oil paintings!