Helen Ward

Helen is predominantly a landscape painter who enjoys interpreting the patterns, shapes and colours in nature. She’s fascinated by the shapes of fields created by hedgerows, the patterns of crops growing, the silhouette of a copse of trees on the ridgeline of a hill or the drama of a lone tree in a field. Wild areas of forest or hillsides attract her attention as well as man-made landscapes of farms and gardens. She observes the way branches intertwine and how the wind moves long grass. She loves examining contrasting leaf shapes and bright flowers, placed either luckily by nature or deliberately by the gardener.

Helen paints in an abstract or semi-abstract style with the intention of creating a simplified and pared back version of what she sees and responds to. She believes that pleasure can come from the pure sensation of looking at a work of art, without the need for the art to represent anything specific or instantly recognisable. She wants her paintings to inspire joy, mixed with an element of intrigue.