Helen was born in Scotland, where she studied art at school and college. After graduating as a teacher, she moved to Greece, where she was inspired by the vibrant culture, people and landscapes. 

 

She then moved to Turkey and for six years taught art and music at the Istanbul International Community School. While there, she directed and designed sets and costumes for musicals including Cats, You’re a good man Charlie Brown, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Oliver and Grease. She also found time to paint and sculpt , captivated by the people and scenes around her – old men in coffee shops, young shoe shiners, old ladies with weather worn faces, farmers working the fields.

 

When Helen moved back to Greece, she taught art at a local children’s home in Paleon Faliron. She was also very keen to continue her studies and took courses in life drawing, art history and ceramics at the Art Painting Centre in Glyfada. Here, she had the opportunity to sculpt life models directly from clay.

 

Her work – paintings drawings and sculpture – has been shown in group exhibitions in Greece, Turkey and Scotland.

 

In 2004, she had her first solo show, at the Egina Aegina Gallery in Greece.

 

In 2007 she received a Highly Commended Award for her exhibit ‘Sisters’ at the Moray Arts Club in her native Scotland.

 

In 2014 she returned to her roots as an educator and gave her first workshop, ‘Human Figurative Ceramic Sculpture- An Immersion in Observation’ at Theodora Chorafa’s Studio on the Island of Aegina. The workshop was part of a group of workshops leading up to the Exhibition’ Modern Myth’ at the Archaeological Museum in Aegina. The Exhibition and workshops were organized by Aegina and Ceramics.

 

Since 2009 Helen is a member of the Greek Chamber of Fine Arts.

 

She works mainly in stoneware clay and has experimented with different hand-building techniques. She prefers to form her pieces using coils of clay in different colours and textures and uses a variety of firing techniques including smoke firing. She also uses glazes, patinas , stains and wax to get the finish she wants. Selected sculptures are cast in limited editions in bronze.

 

Her work is in the collection at the Greek Embassy in Ankara and in private collections worldwide. A selection of her sculptures is on show at the Egina Aegina Gallery , Aegina Greece, The Big White Gallery, Mykonos, Greece, The Tsihritsis Foundation in Kifissia, Athens, Greece, The Oia Treasures Art Gallery, Oia, Santorini, Greece and The Kapudag Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey.