Kaatje Vermeire

Kaatje Vermeire is a Belgian illustrator and author of several award-winning books. She has exhibited in the Picturale, the White Ravens and Villa verbeelding. Her endless curiosity for materials and textures makes her work an exciting display of technical possibilities, which translates into rich, atmospheric and surprising images.  Her intense work ethics and exploring capacity give us beautifully crafted illustrations with a life of their own.

Kaatje Vermeire studied Graphic Design and Advertising at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium. She specialised in Graphic Arts, where she discovered her passion for printmaking. Vermeire’s oeuvre is now composed of etchings, woodcuts and monotypes that play with each other and metamorphose into new images. Kaatje needs to be touched by a story to illustrate it as much as she needs to experiment to keep herself interested. This playful and restless approach leads to a dynamic and always surprising collection.

The book De Vrouw en het Jongetje ( De Eenhoorn, 2007) for publishing house De Eenhoorn was her first major illustrative contract. In 2008 she received two awards: a Boekenpluim (Belgium) and a White Raven (Bologna, Italy). De Vrouw en het Jongetje has since been published in several languages. Afterwards came successful projects such as Mannetje en Vrouwtje krijgen een Kind (De Eenhoorn, 2009), Mare en de dingen (De Eenhooorn, 2010) which won the Grand Prize at the Picturale Competition (Ronse, 2010) and has now been translated into more than a dozen languages, De V-vlucht van Otar (Barbara Fiore, 2011), and one of her most ambitious projects: De zeer vermoeide man en de vrouw die hartstochtelijk van bonsai hield (De Eenhoorn, 2016) created in collaboration with the celebrated Belgian author Peter Verhelst.

Kaatje Vermeire was guest at the Salon du livre et de la Presse Jeunesse in Montreuil (2010), the Beijing International Book Fair (2013) and the Berliner Literaturfestival (2015). She is a teacher at the Royal School of Arts in Gent and she also gives workshops and readings.

I am inclined to think that my illustrations can only be good if blood, sweat and tears have preceded. While a free, rough and spontaneous sketch can sometimes be so much more powerful  and can come to the essence so much more. – Kaatje Vermeire –

Her work at ViViD Illustrations

Selection Awards

2010 Mare en de dingen (De Eenhoorn): Grote Prijs Pictorale Rose, translated in several languages

2007 De vrouw en het jongetje (De Eenhoorn): Boekenpluim (België), White Raven (Bologna), translated in several languages

Selection exhibitions

2015 Berliner Literaturfestival

2013 Beijing International Book fair

2010 Pictorale, Ronse

2010 Salon du livre et de la Presse, Motreuil

Kaatje Vermeire

Kaatje Vermeire is a Belgian illustrator and author of several award-winning books. She has exhibited in the Picturale, the White Ravens and Villa verbeelding. Her endless curiosity for materials and textures makes her work an exciting display of technical possibilities, which translates into rich, atmospheric and surprising images.  Her intense work ethics and exploring capacity give us beautifully crafted illustrations with a life of their own.

Kaatje Vermeire studied Graphic Design and Advertising at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium. She specialised in Graphic Arts, where she discovered her passion for printmaking. Vermeire’s oeuvre is now composed of etchings, woodcuts and monotypes that play with each other and metamorphose into new images. Kaatje needs to be touched by a story to illustrate it as much as she needs to experiment to keep herself interested. This playful and restless approach leads to a dynamic and always surprising collection.

The book De Vrouw en het Jongetje ( De eenhoorn, 2007) for publishing house De Eenhoorn was her first major illustrative contract. In 2008 she received two awards: a Boekenpluim (Belgium) and a White Raven (Bologna, Italy). De Vrouw en het Jongetje has since been published in several languages. Afterwards came successful projects such as Mannetje en Vrouwtje krijgen een Kind (De Eenhoorn, 2009), Mare en de dingen (De Eenhooorn, 2010) which won the Grand Prize at the Picturale Competition (Ronse, 2010) and has now been translated into more than a dozen languages, De V-vlucht van Otar (Barbara Fiore, 2011), and one of her most ambitious projects: De zeer vermoeide man en de vrouw die hartstochtelijk van bonsai hield (De Eenhoorn, 2016) created in collaboration with the celebrated Belgian author Peter Verhelst.

Kaatje Vermeire was guest at the Salon du livre et de la Presse Jeunesse in Montreuil (2010), the Beijing International Book Fair (2013) and the Berliner Literaturfestival (2015). She is a teacher at the Royal School of Arts in Gent and she also gives workshops and readings.

I am inclined to think that my illustrations can only be good if blood, sweat and tears have preceded. While a free, rough and spontaneous sketch can sometimes be so much more powerful… and can come to the essence so much more. – Kaatje Vermeire –

Her work at ViViD Illustrations

Books featuring her work