Andrea Van Wyk

Large floral canvases with muted colors fill Andrea Van Wyk’s studio at Mainframe Studios. The acrylic paint blends into the canvas, and her work is unencumbered by glass and frame.

Look closely, and you’ll see she’s inspired by the styles of Georgia O’Keefe and Helen Frankenthaler, where the flowers spill over the edge of the canvas and gentle drips of paint cascade toward the bottom of the artwork.

“It’s realist versus abstract — a good blending balance of both,” she explains. “When it flows down, it shows the path the paint took — an act of creating.” 

Andrea cites her parents’ creative influences. Her mom was a gardener, specializing in flowers. As a seamstress, she created beautiful quilts. Her dad was a Reformed Church minister who connected with his congregation to make the Bible relate to real life issues. “It’s a combination of influences from my parents. Mom with her floral gardens and my dad who painted pictures with his words,” she says.

Andrea was an art teacher for 38 years at Pella schools and painted Pella Dutch facades on various storefronts in Pella. “I’d taught students about architectural drawings, and people wanted me to create scenes. This is how I started selling paintings and painting in people’s homes,” she says. 

During school years, she painted on nights, weekends and summer breaks. She traveled with a student ambassador organization, gaining valuable creative inspiration from architecture in different countries.

Today, her artwork can be found at Mainframe Studios as well as Brew Coffee House and EmBellish in Pella. She travels to juried art shows and festivals, and her artwork appears in the Oskaloosa Gallery and Newton Center for the Arts.

When paying attention to details on flowers, she discovered a great deal more, and her artwork expanded. She’s painted flowers from a ditch across the road from her home and the rose garden behind the Des Moines Art Center. “My eye is always open, looking for compositions.”

She’s newly retired from teaching and looking for new audiences for her work, which can be a challenge. “I’m a right-brain person. The business side of it takes away from my studio work,” she reflects. “I love connecting with people about my work. It’s meant to be shared, not kept in a closet.” 

Once a piece is completed, she’s excited to share it with others. “I can’t wait to put it out there and see who connects with it. I love it when people connect — it’s the best part of my art.”

Andrea recalls a painting she completed seven years ago, which recently sold. “Someone just found it now. You have to have patience.”

As her work is ever evolving, she only lacks time. “I have so many paintings in my mind, and I don’t have enough time to get them all on canvas.” ♦