Interview
Helen Booth
Helen Booth is best known for her monochromatic layered oil paintings, that use repetitive mark-making and distilled patterns to create artworks that strive to capture Beauty. A recent residency in Iceland has greatly enlightened her practice.
Standing in what she describes as "A divine landscape," Booth's personal belief that Nature is the most potent force, and trying to capture the essence of Nature in its purest form is essential to her as an artist. Her awards from both the Pollock Krasner Foundation and the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation have allowed for a period of intense creativity in her studio in West Wales, where she lives and works. Booth studied at Wimbledon School of Art, graduating in Fine Art Painting in 1989.
Could you tell us about your background and how you started your journey in the art world?
“My name is Helen Booth, and I am a contemporary abstract painter based in Wales in the UK. I studied Fine Art Painting at Wimbledon School of Art in London and graduated in 1989. After graduation, I worked in various studios throughout London and then moved to an old woolen mill, quite close to the sea in Wales, where I now live and work as an artist.”
What would you say inspires you most?
“In early 2020, just before the pandemic, I was fortunate enough to be an artist-in-residence at the Hafnarborg Arts and Culture Centre in Iceland. I spent 4 weeks there, traveling along the island's south coast in what the locals described as the harshest winter in over 20 years. The weather and the fact that tourism wasn't very high due to the COVID-19 pandemic meant that I experienced Iceland with very few other visitors.
I've always been inspired by landscape and nature, but going to Iceland and actually witnessing the sheer scale, menace, and beauty of the place really honed my creative practice. It was pure serendipity that I went there at that time and experienced what I did. It completely changed my creative outlook – especially my palette.”
“Without art, you have no society.
It provides inspiration, knowledge, solace; it allows ideas to form and then offers these ideas to permeate into society.
A society without art is unimaginable.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“I struggle with the word ‘spiritual’. The word is too small to encapsulate what it actually means. I suppose it's like the word ‘love’ in many ways – not living up to its definition. But having said that, I work very hard to capture my emotional response to the landscape and the very act of making paintings. I want to offer my own definition of a spiritual experience when people look at my work.
I strive to capture beauty by creating work that connects with the viewer in a meditative way – offering solace in the monochromatic colours and subtle energy. Seeing the glaciers and the icebergs of Iceland and witnessing the sheer scale of the place made me realise how small and unimportant we are – but also how privileged we are to be part of something so incredibly humbling. Visiting Iceland and witnessing nature in this form was almost like a divine experience for me. It was an incredibly special experience that I will never forget.”
Which artists influence you most?
“I love the work of Cy Twombly & Agnes Martin – both very different but both offering soulful and emotionally charged work. I remember visiting the Tate galleries retrospective of both artists, and they will always be exhibitions that I will remember. I also love the work of Peter Doig. His large-scale paintings are just so well painted. I think he is actually my favourite living painter. I also love Louise Bourgeois's drawings and often look at her work to feel inspired; her spidery drawings are just fabulous. Recently, I've been looking at Chris Ofili's work. His underpainting - the marks that he makes around the peripheries of the canvas are just so intricate, beautiful, and inspiring. I also really love the paintings of Rachel Howard and Amy Feldman and the drawings of Cornelia Parker.”
How would you describe your work?
“My work is peaceful, calming, and meditative. It offers an escape and allows the audience to be quiet and to reflect.”
“I listen to Audible in my studio; I love the monotony of the same voice. I find music far too distracting, and I enjoy listening to books as I paint the repetitive marks in my work.”
What is your creative process like?
“I try to paint every day. I have always worked in oil paint. I love the organic push and pull that you get from the medium and the depth it offers. It's a long game – layers take ages to dry, which forces me to be patient. I also love the warp and weft you get on canvas and the impurities you can find on the stretched surface. Materials are really important to me as an artist, and I suppose it's the traditional materials that I am always drawn to. I do enjoy making gesso, too – that lovely creamy ground that absorbs the paint and holds the memory of every mark.
My work takes quite a long time to finish as the layering and depth that I try to capture is a slow process. I usually start with quite energetic robust mark-making, sometimes in quite bright colours. These are then built upon with rhythmic, often repetitive mark-making that I drag and blot across the surface. I use tissue paper to take off access paint, applying different pressure to remove just the right amount of oils. I then use the prints created on the tissue to repeat the pattern across the surface of the work. This creates marks that are in focus and also dissolve back into the previous layers. After this, I apply more paint over the top of the marks at a slightly different angle or pressure. This helps to create depth and space within the work.
I am drawn to a monochromatic palette because I want the viewer to be drawn to the mark rather than the colour. It also results in the contemplative surface that is very important to me as an artist. Although I try to keep a sketchbook, I don’t enjoy the restriction I feel from them. So, I use an etching press to create monoprints to map out my larger works.”
What's your favourite artwork and why?
“That's a really difficult question. Because it changes all the time depending on what I'm looking at, what I'm reading and what mood I'm in. But right now - as I write this, it is probably Ski Jacket by Peter Doig - or The Paradise Paintings by Cy Twombly or Greasy by Ellen Gallagher.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“I won the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Award in 2019 for Abstract Painting, and also a Pollock Krasner Foundation Award for Art in 2019.
I’ve had solo Exhibitions at Oriel Myrddin in Wales, & Gallery in Edinburgh and Wilson Stephens and Jones in London.”
Website: www.helenbooth.com
Instagram: @helenboothartist
