Immerse is an Exhibition of over 45 oil paintings by artist Helen Glassford. Helen has been working towards this solo show for over a year and shares with us her vision and experiences of the more secluded parts of the Scottish landscape.
Immerse is inspired by the fascination she has with the sensory experience of landscape. Her paintings describe and convey the forces at play, both physical and psychological, when exposed to the wild and unpredictable personalities of nature.
Helen goes in search of the empty places, deserted beaches and rocky outcrops and observes and draws readily in sketchbooks recording and noting the feel of the weather and the sense of the place. Being ever aware of the transient nature of life.
Helen’s work suggests, echoes and distils the ideas from experiencing these remote landscapes: Man’s insignificance in the face of nature and the human ability to see the bigger picture. The vast nature of the wilderness and its hopeful possibilities and the micro details contain and suggest human histories and memories. Her work is a balancing act of memory and emotion, the form of the land and the cloaks it wears at that moment.
The paintings in this show reflect these varying experiences, some calm and light with a hint of euphoric melancholy. Others are energy filled suggesting the argumentative power of the elements. Paint is dripped, poured and removed time and time again until the right balance of colour, texture and composition is reached to tell the genuine story of her experience.
The love and passion for being outdoors was first kindled when walking in the Lake District hills as a child. Youth hosteling holidays as a teenager took her to many Wainwright hilltops where she remembers most vividly the smell of the air and the light on the mountains and
the sense of solitude that it evoked. Her move in 1995 to The East Coast of Scotland to study at Duncan of Jordanstone college of art was an easy choice as the lure of the light and the easy escape routes to the hills and beaches was too strong to ignore. Now living and working in Newport on Tay she is inspired daily by the changing light on the River Tay. Tay Country seeps gently through her conscious and features often in her work.
This is long awaited solo show of her work.