Helen Ormiston smith

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Artist Statement 

Taking a Master’s degree later in life allowed me the time to discover ways to bring together my earlier artistic disciplines, drawing and painting with the luscious medium of clay. Sculpture drew me and the landscapes of my early childhood, those of the Himalayas, resonated with the mountainous terrain of B.C.  I found my voice in the creation of iconic forms and fractured shapes and lines, to express ideas of strength and fragility, permanence and transience; using rock as metaphor for humanity and for the fragile earth.

Helen Ormiston Smith - ceramic artist

Biography 

Helen was born in India and educated in England and Scotland, where she completed her Fine Arts Degree at Edinburgh College of Art in the School of Drawing and Painting. She taught in Scotland before coming to Canada with her husband, an abstract painter, and her sons. She went on to take her Master’s Degree at the University of Victoria.

The artist’s early work in Scotland was executed in oil paint and graphite. On Vancouver Island, Helen was offered a job teaching art through clay at the high school level where she was suddenly exposed to clay, which she describes as “a new luscious and seductive medium”. Since that time, she has worked exclusively in clay, adapting her drawing and painting skills to her sculptural forms.

Helen has exhibited regularly since 1988 and her work is in many private collections. She lives and works out of her studio on Salt Spring Island.

Learn more

shows: Helen's work can be seen through the studio during studio shows or by appointment.

web: Visit the artist's website for more pictures and further info. 

Contact Helen

email: northbeachstudio@telus.net