Ysa Gernale has absorbed the sense and sensibility of our native folk and way of life, so vividly captured by the late masters Manansala ang Malang. Indeed, the native sensibility has, through the decades and in the hands of each successive generation of Filipino artists, proven to be a rich, inexhaustible resource of imagery that instantly connects the audience to its authentic self.

Ysa's visual instruments, in the delineation of her figures and composition, draw for the energy of rhythmic patterning, the repeat-motif of various ornamental designs, which are generously deployed within the overall design, from the women-vendors attire and to the objects of their merchandise. Ysa's pattering is in full panoply, as in a panoramic town setting, from the array of nipa-roofed folk houses to the scudding multi-colored clouds overhead, and the endless procession of residents outdoors taking in the fresh, provincial morning air.

Even in the occasional surprise of an abstract painting, like "Pagkakaisa" - a step outside her comfort zone- is imbued with Ysa Gernale's gift for the pleasures of patterning.