Helen is a Brisbane based watercolour artist concentrating on landscape and portraiture. For her, art is neither profession nor a hobby; rather simply what she must do and has done since early childhood.
Almost all of Helen’s landscapes start in the field sketching and painting from life. She seeks to immerse herself in the experience of a place, using the watercolour medium to convey the ephemera of shifting light, weather and mood of the scene before her.
Helen feels that the special transparency and sometimes serendipitous flow of watercolour creates a spontaneity that says it all. COVID lockdowns did not disrupt this work but did concentrate her efforts. Sitting each day at the windows of her high-rise apartment in Brisbane, Helen began a series of works that she calls ‘At my window’, or jokingly ‘en plein lounge’.
Occasionally Helen is inspired to create totally imaginary scenes or abstract work, with ideas coming from the environments and experiences of her travels.
In 2016 Helen was awarded the Glencore Animal Portrait Prize for one of her imaginary works based a field trip. In 2018 she was a finalist in the Glencore Percival Portrait Painting award with a portrait of her mother.
Helen began formal art training at the age of eight, when her form teacher in Townsville, who also ran a private art school, noticed Helen’s drawings. Helen attended this art school until the age of eighteen, painting in oils and acrylics and taking formal art subjects.
Though Helen completed unrelated degrees at University and worked full time in another profession, art was never absent. Until recently fabric art and craft and screen printing occupied her non-professional life and her art learning continued through workshops and formal print-making studies at Barrier Reef Technical (TAFE).
Helen returned full-time to painting in 2012. Since then she has attended numerous workshops and courses in drawing, general watercolour techniques, watercolour portraiture, urban sketching and en plein air work. In 2019 she began to provide workshops in her own watercolour techniques.
Artist Biography
Helen is a Brisbane based watercolour artist concentrating on landscape and portraiture. For her, art is neither profession nor a hobby; rather simply what she must do and has done since early childhood.
Almost all of Helen’s landscapes start in the field sketching and painting from life. She seeks to immerse herself in the experience of a place, using the watercolour medium to convey the ephemera of shifting light, weather and mood of the scene before her.
Helen feels that the special transparency and sometimes serendipitous flow of watercolour creates a spontaneity that says it all. COVID lockdowns did not disrupt this work but did concentrate her efforts. Sitting each day at the windows of her high-rise apartment in Brisbane, Helen began a series of works that she calls ‘At my window’, or jokingly ‘en plein lounge’.
Occasionally Helen is inspired to create totally imaginary scenes or abstract work, with ideas coming from the environments and experiences of her travels.
In 2016 Helen was awarded the Glencore Animal Portrait Prize for one of her imaginary works based a field trip. In 2018 she was a finalist in the Glencore Percival Portrait Painting award with a portrait of her mother.
Helen began formal art training at the age of eight, when her form teacher in Townsville, who also ran a private art school, noticed Helen’s drawings. Helen attended this art school until the age of eighteen, painting in oils and acrylics and taking formal art subjects.
Though Helen completed unrelated degrees at University and worked full time in another profession, art was never absent. Until recently fabric art and craft and screen printing occupied her non-professional life and her art learning continued through workshops and formal print-making studies at Barrier Reef Technical (TAFE).
Helen returned full-time to painting in 2012. Since then she has attended numerous workshops and courses in drawing, general watercolour techniques, watercolour portraiture, urban sketching and en plein air work. In 2019 she began to provide workshops in her own watercolour techniques.