Biography

I Helen is a multi-disciplinary artist of painting and textiles. She began her creative journey working in the theatre as a dancer, musician and costume designer in 1984 whilst working a six-month contract on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean.  Being passionate about fashion, Helen decided to launch her own freelance fashion brand Art Lab Design shortly after she arrived on the island. Fascinated by the colourful lifestyle of the island people and working amongst them, she sourced much of her fabrics from local fabric warehouses and outlets around the island.

Drawing her inspiration from the island people and their crafts, the landscape and the sea, she launched her first collection. Her first designs saw bright hand-painted tee shirts with dynamic pictorial designs, celebrating the lives of the island people of Puerto Rico. Helen worked from her outside balcony on top floor of a condominium, which became her workshop, overlooking Condado Lagoon.

With her new workspace set up Helen soon built up her own fashion brand creating unique hand-painted tee shirts and resort wear to include bespoke fashions for private clients on a made to order basis and undertaking commissions for local fashion boutiques in San Juan and around the Condado area. With an armful of experience in the theatre Helen worked with local hotels to produce choreographed fashion shows and events around the island of Puerto Rico marketing her new business which became her base for two and half years.

Returning to the UK Helen worked in fashion retail for a while before training as a digital illustrator which eventually landed her a role as a Design Technician working for a Landscape Architecture Company based in the South-West. Helen studied for a master’s degree in fine art Practice and Theory (painting), at the Winchester School of Art and graduated in 2005.

During a trip to the Tate Modern during one of her London Gallery visits, Helen came across a book on the theories of Synaesthesia and Visual Music.  Curious to explore this phenomenon at more depth, she began investigating how the element of sound or music, could be experienced as colour, and mark making. At that time, she had been experimenting with drip painting and working with gesso on the canvas for a 3D effect and began integrating this new painting process with the Visual Music theories. With the addition of applied the element of ‘chance’ to her paintings, her paintings became vibrant soundscape and music stories, bright with colour and texture.

This new-found work-in-progress developed into a series of large-scale 3D paintings and sound installations inspired by her passion for the landscape and natural world.

Exploring the idea of ‘chance’ further with her textiles, Helen developed the working process of first applying tie dye and bleach to her textiles and then interpretation of the finished result into a hand-painted textile art. This introduced a fresh new approach to her vibrant hand-painted garments.

Helen currently works from her studio at Fisherton Mill in Salisbury where she paints and creates unique textiles, and gifts made from natural materials, and designs upcycled fashion. Helen is fortunate to be surrounded by the ancient Wiltshire landscape hosting many Neolithic and Bronze-Age stone monuments and green spaces like Stonehenge and Avebury. She finds much of her inspiration for painting from these sacred spaces in this ancestral landscape. Living not far away from the Jurassic coast also gives her the opportunity to explore the wild seascapes and coastal landscapes. Helen delivers hands-on workshops in painting, textiles and fashion from her studio, and sometimes teaches art and design/fashion to FE students in the southwest region.