Yolanda Koh
Columbia, MD - United States
Yolanda Koh - Fine Artist
Member Since: 04/09/2010
In 1994, Yolanda traveled to Bermuda. She visited a quaint little art studio where beautiful watercolors filled the Victorian rooms. The British artist, whose name has been forgotten, painted lovely pristine landscapes. Yolanda fell in love with these pictures and wished to be able to paint, similarly. After her return, she embarked on her journey in watercolor.
Yolanda loves to paint life’s wonderful experiences such as the “Celebration of Motherhood”, Leisure and Travel. Early in her watercolor journey, Yolanda’s children inspired her to paint. She had an overwhelming desire to capture their early years and precious moments (as in “the Kodak Moment”), but unlike a photograph, her watercolors would reflect the poetic quality of the medium. She enjoyed painting the memorable times she spent with her children. It is as if by painting them, she could make time stand still and never lose that experience. Her paintings also showed the soft cool autumn sunlight shining on the children and the autumn foliage in the background. She discovered that sunlight, a very interesting element, controlled the mood and the tone for the entire painting. She likes to use sunlight to enhance a picture. As a guide, she wouldn’t start a painting unless the subject matter was compelling or entertaining. This lighthouse is symbolic of the good times she had with her children at Outer Banks, NC.
In recent years, her paintings have centered on vacation places that were special, like Bermuda, Charleston, Arizona, San Diego, Cancun, Santa Fe, Taos, and Albuquerque. Her emphasis is on the indigenous subjects like flowers, plants, missions, houses, beaches, and people. These paintings from her travels formed a series entitled “A Sense of Place.”
Yolanda is a Signature Member of the Baltimore Watercolor Society (BWS,) and the Potomac Valley Watercolorist, MD. Her paintings were widely exhibited, in the Mid-Atlantic Region. She has held several solo and two person shows.
Yolanda graduated from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, College of Fine and Applied Arts. She holds a Degree in Architecture and is a professional architect in the State of Maryland. She teaches Watercolor and Chinese Brush Painting at Maryland art centers.
