The Sunshine Coast has so many talented visual artists and one of them is local Kenilworth artist, Yvonne James, whose work will be on display at the coming Kenilworth Artsfest. Her specialty is animal portraits, and she achieves amazing subtlety of colour and texture with coloured pencils. 

Yvonne works in this medium to achieve her wonderfully life like portraits of dogs, cats, birds and native wildlife. Her works are very popular with pet owners and her display is a feature of the annual Blessing of the Pets service in Kenilworth.

“People are often surprised that I use coloured pencils in my portraits,” Yvonne said. “They usually associate coloured pencils with children’s art but it is also a very good medium for adults to work with.”

Yvonne has been drawing portraits of pets in coloured pencils since 2017.

“I had been doing art workshops for many years and had just completed one at the Kenilworth Arts Festival,”said Yvonne.

“I decided to have a go at the adult colouring books that were coming into fashion at the time but I found colouring in very boring. Then I used coloured pencils to sketch a King Parrot and I haven’t looked back.

“When Brodie, our friends’ beloved dog, passed over the rainbow bridge, I decided to do a portrait of her. My friends were delighted with it, and I have not stopped drawing pet portraits since.”

Yvonne’s art will be part of the 2023 Kenilworth ArtsFest Art Exhibition at Kenilworth Hall from the 26th to the 28th of May along with other art works from landscape, seascape, human form, still life, animal life and abstract.

The prizes this year for visual art categories are $5,000 for the Kenilworth Art Award, $1,000 for general 2D work, $300 for the Encouragement Award and $500 for the People’s Choice Award. Entries are now open on the  Kenilworth Arts Council website www.kenilwortharts.org.au