The Distinctive Style of Yvonne Vander Kooi
Yvonna Vander Kooi is a painter based on Vancouver Island. In her artistic practice, Yvonne produces works that oscillate between figuration and soft abstraction, often combining the two methods into wildly colourful compositions that invite personal reflection and connection.
I really enjoy Yvonne’s distinctive painting style. In recent years, the artist has been leaning more into a blend of figuration and abstraction, creating a series of paintings that explore imagery and expressions from childhood, often by juxtaposing partially abstracted childlike figures with brightly coloured backgrounds that tend to intersect with the outlines of the subjects that they frame.
The front page of Yvonne's art website, www.yvonnebirdstudio.com
There’s an interesting tension between the human figures and the backgrounds in Yvonne’s works. The figures themselves are often distinguished from the backgrounds not only by their outlines but through the use of a more subdued colour palette. The points where background colours intersect with the figures, then, lend to the sense that these figures are being slowly swallowed up by the colours around them.
