Fine Art For Small Spaces LLC

STATEMENT

If you are looking for Playful Botanical Style Floral Art, look no further! Painted with passion from memory, imagination or my own reference snapshots. I let the paint take me where I need to go, then add a touch of ink to give each piece a stylish pop.

I work in two contrasting methods and styles which give me a sense of artistic balance and reflect both the chaos and order in nature, which is my predominant subject matter. My intuitive method begins with a basic color palette which is added to instinctively as the piece develops.

In this method I draw upon memories of experiences in the natural world, such as trips out West or walks on one of many of Michigan’s lakeshores. Channeling feelings of movement and color, I use acrylic with both a brush and a palette knife to model the scene. This leads to either highly abstract works or pieces where discernible landscape structures become apparent, such as a hill, a mountain, a cliff or a grouping of vegetation.

When working intuitively with watercolors, I will begin painting after observing my subject for numerous hours, such as clouds or birds. Then as I work, images simply present themselves. As the story unfolds, I will add and delete pigments at great length to form an image, and adjust my palette instinctively.

My second method involves a great deal of contemplation and planning. It begins with a snapshot of an intimate moment experienced outdoors. A blossom, cloudscape, or waterline is captured as a print, and then key elements are extracted to create the painting. I will play around with the composition, create palette swatches, rough sketches and ultimately transfer the sketch to paper or canvas in preparation to paint.

In both methods, I allow the pigments to mingle or overlap freely, creating their own language of color, and after they dry apply black ink to create further motion in broad undulating strokes, or develop form with extensive stippling. The finished piece suggests the reference material, but rarely resembles it.

The artwork is completed when I feel it reaches the level of visual emotion it needs to tell a story that others can enjoy.

BIO

Helena’s art is her first language. It formed a bridge across the language barrier she experienced when her parents arrived in the USA. As a child, she recalls doodling images of animals, and her love of nature was reinforced after entering the corporate world and being truly separated from the great outdoors.

She states that she is a complete homebody these days, as there are always four rescue animals that need constant love in her home, and flower gardens that evolve and change every year, serving as resource material for most of her work.

Her company, Fine Art for Small Spaces, was born from a passion to bringing uplifting, soulful and whimsical images of nature into your world. As a child she fell in love with the outdoors and spent time drawing and painting the things she saw. To improve her skills, she earned my Bachelor of Fine Art degree at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

EXHIBITIONS/SHOWS/COMMISSIONS

2016: "Natures Song" Solo Show Lawrence Street Gallery Ferndale MI
"Members Show" Anton Art Center Mt. Clemens MI
2015: "Members Show" Grosse Pointe Art Center Grosse Pointe MI
"Anything Goes" Grosse Pointe Art Center Grosse Pointe MI
"Sapphire" Anton Art Center Mt. Clemens MI
"Members Show" Anton Art Center Mt. Clemens MI
"Fair And One Square" Anton Art Center Mt. Clemens MI
"Celebrate The Print" Lawrence Street Gallery Ferndale MI
2014: "Members Show" Grosse Pointe Art Center Grosse Pointe MI
"Night Time" Grosse Pointe Art Center Grosse Pointe MI
"Think Small" Lawrence Street Gallery Ferndale MI
2012: "Think Small" Lawrence Street Gallery Ferndale MI
2011: "Small Wonders" Anton Art Center Mt. Clemens MI
2007: "Reconnecting:
U of M Art & Design Alumni Show" University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI
1988: "Stewart & Stewart Prize" Penny Stamps School Of Art Ann Arbor MI
1987: "Lasting Impressions" Detroit Artist's Market Detroit MI
"Statewide Print Competition" Alma College Alma MI

EDUCATION

1988 BFA Drawing/Printmaking University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

AWARDS

Many of my pieces are in private collections throughout the Midwest and Hawaii.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Owner/Artist Fine Art For Small Spaces creating watercolor/mixed media/acrylic nature art, cards and prints
Owner/Artist of Masterpiece Custom Mirror creating floral and abstract sandblasted designs on glass and mirror

TAGS

painter in Michigan, watercolor painter in Michigan, Michigan watercolorist, Floral watercolorist, nature artist