Helen Theobald and Her Art
Helen has worked as a painter and teacher since the 1990s, exhibiting in various galleries in London and the South of England.
Her work is now in private and corporate collections in many parts of the United Kingdom, including the collection of the Bank of England, and a piece has been acquired by Hampshire County Council for their Permanent Collection.
She is an elected member of Bath Society of Artists. Prints of her work have been produced by Art in Motion of Canada and sold worldwide.
" I grew up in Wiltshire, and find the wide open spaces of Salisbury Plain and the Downs with their White Horses cut into the chalk still exert a strong influence on me. I now live on the south coast in Hampshire, but was very happy to resume connections with my original home when I was elected a member of Bath Society of Artists. Travelling over Salisbury Plain to Bath for exhibitions renews the excitement I find in the Wiltshire landscape. Purbeck and Portland are also close at hand and an exciting source of subject matter. Living so close to the sea, I am very aware of its power and destructive strength, and am drawn to paint weathered and battered buildings and sheds which attempt to stand against it. Still life is also a love of mine, the images coming purely from my imagination and giving me great scope with colour and design.
Acrylic paint gives me the most freedom to experiment. I love to play with different textures and glazes, and to add collage, charcoal and oil pastel to create mixed media paintings with rich surfaces built up of many layers. This can take a long time, with many changes in the colour scheme and design before the image emerges as I want it.
The adult classes I teach are aimed at increasing creative and imaginative ability, experimenting with paint and with ideas. I find interacting with students, and developing projects for them benefits me as much as it benefits them! It keeps me thinking and stimulates my own imagination. "