Helen studied painting and sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art and Grays School of Art, Aberdeen. Her work throughout her career has been firmly rooted in the Scottish colourist tradition, with compositional patterns and a strong colour palette evident throughout. Oil is the predominant choice of material but often this is often combined with collage, textural layering and photo transfer techniques. Her love of landscape is key to her recent works and several journeys to Australia and around the outback of New South Wales, Southern Australia and Queensland have inspired her paintings. Many of the deserted buildings depicted come from a strong mining tradition which prevails to this day on a larger more industrial scale. These buildings are tangible elements of outback history often taken for granted and left to quietly decay but they tell a rich story within the vast landscape.
