Born in the Netherlands in 1943, Klunder immigrated to Canada in 1952, where he lived in Toronto for a number of years. He attended the Central Technical School in Toronto from 1960-64. Klunder is well known for his large-scale textural paintings that echo the Dutch tradition of impasto painting in the style of Rembrandt, Van Gogh, de Kooning, and Mondrian. A talented and unabashed colourist, Klunder's rich hues become the substance of his paintings, piling up and shifting from representation into abstract expressionism. Each painting presents a visual play of paint that can take the artist several years to complete. Despite his slow and deliberate hand, Klunder's paintings sustain both a sense of energy and urgency.