Kim VanDerHoek is an American contemporary fine artist who creates vibrant, textural oil paintings of landscapes and urban scenes in her Southern California studio.

Born in Southern California and raised in the mountains of Big Bear City, Kim spent many hours as a child climbing trees, sledding down snow-covered hills, horseback riding and hiking through the woods. Surrounded by the wild beauty of the forest Kim developed an early appreciation for the outdoors and a fascination for urban environments, which she continues to explore today through painting.

After graduating in 1993 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in illustration from the California College of the Arts in Oakland, California, Kim worked as a graphic designer for 11 years. She left the design field to pursue a career as a full-time painter.

She learned to paint by painting en Plein Air because it combined her love of being outside, creating art and studying from life. “I enjoy the challenges Plein Air painting poses. Dealing with the weather, changing light and other hurdles of outdoor painting has forced me to to have a plan for each painting, to paint with commitment and to fearlessly experiment .” Kim feels that through Plein Air painting she has gained a better understanding of the effects of light and atmosphere. She aims to translate those effects into her studio paintings. Currently, she is working on a series of studio paintings documenting iconic bridges across the U.S.