| Helen Glassford CV and artists statement |
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| view Helen's paintings | |
| In 2007, Helen was runner up in the
Jolomo Scottish Painting award Helen Glassford aged 32, an Honours and Master of Fine Art graduate of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee Scotland, won the Sir Robin Phillipson Memorial Medal in 1998 at the Royal Scottish Academy Students Exhibition. This was followed by The Cuthbert New Young Artist award in 1998 at The Royal Glasgow Institute and the prestigious Armour Award in 1999, also at the R.G.I. She has exhibited at the R.S.A. in 2001 and since then taken part in numerous group exhibitions including 'Calvados' at the Bellevue Gallery during the Internationally renowned Edinburgh Festival. She takes inspiration from many sources from Post-Impressionism, to Abstract Expressionism and from Landscape to Architecture, finding endless fascination in the physical processes of painting, and boundless interest in colour, shape and form. Abstract in essence, her recent work is centred round the idea of recreating a 'new world'. She does not paint to reproduce nature as we recognise it or a place she has visited, but as a way of imagining, inventing or fashioning an alternative. Landscapes are created that are plausible but do not physically exist other than on the canvas. Her paintings could be seen as a form of escapism. They question and challenge the priorities of contemporary society through the suggestion of a substitute reality. Her painting also explores the sensation of being in the natural world, and the surprise and confusion that sometimes arises when confronted by mankind's incursions into it. Disregard of conventional rules and regulations, limits and boundaries creates an intensely personal response in the viewer to each painting. Visually stunning her gestured, energetic paintings retain vibrancy and a subtle balance, despite her frequent seeking of harmonic discord. The numerous awards already received are tangible recognition of her precocious talent and bright future. |