Painter and printmaker Yolanda Frederikse was born Yolanda Louise Rossi on May 27, 1927, in Beverly, Massachusetts to Italian immigrant parents Louis and Louise Rossi. She attended the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, the University of Illinois, and American University in Washington, D.C., studying watercolor painting and printmaking. 

Frederikse taught at Purdue University, Marjorie Webster Junior College, and Immaculata College, and was assistant director at the Town Center Gallery. In 1975 she was awarded an artist's grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to paint prominent architecture of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area, and in 2000 she was awarded their fellowship for drawings of 18th century architecture in Maryland. Though she is considered a regionalist, she has traveled throughout Italy, Holland, the UK, Bali, Mexico, and South Africa on art study trips,a nd has also taught workshops in Portugal.

Yolanda Frederikse is a member of the National Watercolor Society and the American Watercolor Society. She works out of her Kensington, Maryland studied, and has exhibited as recently as 2021 with the Washington Society of Landscape Painters. Her work is included in the collections of the National Museum of Women in the Arts; Georgetown University; the Maryland State Archives; and American University.