Landscape Artist Helen L Robertson
Scotland
I am a self confessed thalassophile !
That is I’m drawn to, and have a great love for the sea.
The urge to be by the sea, has been with me since I was a child, although trips to the beach were few and far between.
I would long for the summer holidays, when as a family we would go to Bamburgh in Northumberland and spend two weeks in a caravan, every year! Our days were spent playing for hours in the sand, arranging shells or building sand sculptures. Of course we would go in the sea whatever the weather, coming out with purple lips, chittering uncontrollably with the cold. Wonderful!
Since having my own children, we’ve spent every possible chance camping by the sea, exploring every Island off the West Coast of Scotland and of course I had to show them Bamburgh.
And so it is in my DNA that my work should reflect this love.
Discovering a new beach or pocket of sand, fills me with great excitement and I cannot wait to pack my rucksack with as limited a palette as I can bare, paper/sketchbook, easel and a board and get down onto the sand and rocks.
I think being out in the landscape gives my paintings more energy and life. When you are working in the moment, there’s usually no time to think for too long, you are just reacting to the elements and the place in a very immediate way. Slightly possessed, almost in a trance!
It makes me work at an incredible speed, trying to capture that fleeting moment in time, before the light changes.
Painting to me is a dance, a battle, a puzzle, a need, in which light is the essential element. If there’s no light then I’m not really inspired. I’m continually looking for that fleeting moment when it brings the landscape alive. Whether coruscating light on the water or reflected on the wet sand, the light draws me into the landscape, intensifying the shadows, giving a sense of form and drama, carving out the composition.
My painting process echoes my surroundings as I flood the paper with colliding pools of colour
using acrylic-inks and watercolour. My medium is as spontaneous and unpredictable as the ever-
changing elements that dominate my surroundings. I don’t want to be in complete control of the media. I want to allow the colour to “do its own thing”, as I think this is when the magic can happen.
I use soft pastels to define and draw into the composition, enjoying the rich density of colour in contrast to the translucency of the watercolour.
I am trying to evoke the feeling of being there, the taste of salt on your lips, wind in your hair and
sand between your toes, I want to draw the viewer in and give them that sense of being right there with me.
I have lived and worked as a full time artist in the small village of Ratagan in the West Highlands of Scotland, near the Isle of Skye since 1988.
I graduated with a B.A.Hons Degree in Glass from Edinburgh College of Art in 1987, then spent the following year at the Royal College of Art, London.
My work is sold in galleries throughout Scotland and online, selling to private collectors worldwide.
Admirers of Helen's work have often commented on how the paintings make them feel transported to that place.
AWARDS
Sir William Gillies Award
presented at the 142nd Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour Annual Open Exhibition 2023
TO PURCHASE A PAINTING
If you would like to purchase a painting, please use the contact button at the top of the page or click on my email address at the bottom of the page. Thank you.
STUDIO VISITS
Helen's studio is in Ratagan IV40 8HX 9 miles east of Eilean Donan Castle.
Please use the Contact button (Top left of page) or phone 07802 545243 to make an appointment.
COMMISSIONS
Helen accepts commissions. Please contact her for details.
Upcoming EXHIBITIONS 2024
14th -16th October FabrianoinAcquarello, Fort Worth, Texas, USA
ABOUT
PAINTINGS
All Videos
GALLERIES AND EXHIBITIONS
2024 UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
14th -16th October FabrianoinAcquarello, Fort Worth, Texas, USA
You can see my work in the following Galleries :
Tolquhon Gallery, Ellon AB41 7LP
Glasgow Gallery, Glasgow G2 4HG
Castle Gallery, Inverness IV2 3DU
Jetty Gallery, Oban. PA34 5NR
Carron Gallery, Strathcarron IV54 8YX
Gallery An Talla Dearg Isle Ornsay Isle of Skye IV43 8QR
Logie Steading Art Gallery, Forres. IV36 2QN
Tippycanoe, Portree, Skye
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Tolquhon Gallery
2024 Glasgow Gallery, Glasgow
2002-24 An Talla Dearg Gallery, Isleornsay, Skye
2020 Torrance Gallery , Edinburgh
2017 Steading Gallery, Balmacara
2011 Castle Gallery , Inverness
2008 Byre Theatre Gallery, St Andrews
2008 MacGregor Fine Art, Glasgow
2007 Carby Art Gallery, Aberdeen
2001 Scone Studios, Perth
1994 Stables Gallery, London
1991 Eden Court Gallery, Inverness
1987-88 Ware on Earth Gallery, Edinburgh
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2224 FabrianoinAcquarello, Bologna, Italy
2023 Royal Scottish Academy RSW Annual Exhibition
2020 Moy Mackay Gallery, Peebles
2019 Torrance Gallery, Edinburgh
2013- 24 Castle Gallery, Inverness
2010 - 23 Lochalsh Art Fair, Dornie
2014 Holroyd Gallery, Ballahulish
2014 Beauly Gallery
2013 Edinburgh Art Fair, Edinburgh
2013 Julian Jardine Gallery, Perth
2012 Edinburgh Art Fair
2012 Nicole Porter Gallery, Aberdeen
2012 Inchmore Art Gallery , Inverness
2009 Logie Steadings Gallery, Forres
2007 Edinburgh Art Fair
2006 Cambridge Art Fair
2004 Green Gallery, Germany
1993 Spey Bay Gallery, Speyside
contact
Tel: 07802 545 243 or 01599 537 150
2 MacInnes Place Ratagan Kyle of Lochalsh IV40 8HX