EVELYN KIRKALDY ~ Illustrator, Fine Artist and Wild Woman

An interminable quest for adventure brings Evelyn to some unique places to find her creative muse. An avid hiker and outdoors person, Evelyn spent ten days in a tree house surrounded by sixteen wild grizzly bears. She has explored the west coast of BC and travelled to Alaska in order to ‘walk with grizzlies’. In Churchill Manitoba, she came face to face with a large polar bear. While out in nature, she feels free and spontaneous, and so she tries to recreate that mood in her studio.

Evelyn has fun working quickly and primarily without the limitations of a brush, merging and mingling drips, dots and spatters. She enjoys surprising her audience by developing various dimensions in her work. From a distance, her acrylic ‘splatter’ canvases can appear representational, but upon closer inspection, they become replete with playful abstract shapes. Intricate texture and vibrant colour play fundamental roles in Evelyn’s portrayals of lush mountain meadows, flower gardens and rainforests as well as the creatures that live there.

Evelyn has an extensive background in design and visual expression. She studied at Three Schools of Art in Toronto and The Banff School of Fine Arts. After graduating with honours from the Ontario College of Art, she moved to western Canada. She spent several years in Calgary and 20 years in Vancouver working as a graphic designer, illustrator and art director and has won several awards for her work. In 2001, Evelyn moved into the wilds of the Kootenays and devoted herself full time to fine art while developing her current style. However, her love for the BC coast never diminished. In the fall of 2018 she moved to Powell River where new inspiration greets her on every turn on the trail. Her passion for the outdoors has inspired Evelyn to create a large body of work in various media, depicting wilderness and it’s wild inhabitants. Her work has been exhibited in several private, public and commercial galleries in BC and Alberta and her pieces hang in a number of residences and establishments across the globe.

Evelyn loves sharing her knowledge with others and has instructed both children and adults in many disciplines of art and design.

evelynkirkaldyart.com
eekbears@hotmail.com