artists

Helen Tabor

Helen was born in Middlesex in 1960 and gained a BA in English and History at York, followed by a PGCE. After a career teaching English, Drama and Art, she settled in Scotland and became a full-time artist in 1997, combining bringing up a family with developing her painting.

Helen’s painting style is both expressive and delicate, combining often vigorous brush strokes with fine detail. This creates an alluring contrast which intrigues and excites the eye.

She uses collage and under-layers of colour to build depth and texture, combining the use of large and small brushes, printing rollers and palette knives to keep the surface fresh. While Helen’s landscapes and seascapes are an emotional response to the world around her, the figure paintings are more contemplative and arise from imagined narratives or experience of family life.

‘In both my figure paintings and my paintings of land or sea, I aim to capture an atmosphere whether of drama or calm, while at the same time playing with paint and colour to free up ideas as the work progresses. There is an excitement and anticipation at the beginning of every painting, followed by a period of anxiety until at some point along the journey the painting begins to speak for itself and all the artist has to do is to follow its lead. That point is always a magical moment and never ceases to thrill. It perhaps can be compared to getting through the pain barrier in sport and the consequent surge of adrenalin and simultaneous sense of peace is what takes me be back to my studio every day.’

Example of Artist's Work

(Click on thumbnails to view. Images record work held in stock or sold. Please check with gallery for other work available.)