The Jetty Gallery
Helen L Robertson
Helen has lived and worked as an artist in Glenshiel near the Isle of Skye since 1988. She settled in the little village of Ratagan after graduating from Edinburgh College of Art, followed by the Royal College of Art in London.
A self-confessed thalassophile, her love for the sea is evident in her work, where she’ll have stood in the brunt of the wind or teetering on the edge of the tide just to get the best composition.
Light is an essential element to Helen. She pursues and captures those fleeting moments where it breaks through the clouds and brings the landscape alive.
Her painting process echoes her surroundings as she floods the paper with colliding pools of colour using acrylic-inks and watercolour. Her medium is as spontaneous and unpredictable as the ever-changing elements that dominate her surroundings. She says “I don’t want to be in complete control of the media. I want to allow the colour to do it’s own thing, as I think this is when the magic can happen."
Helen uses 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.”
Helen was presented with Sir William Gillies Award at the 142nd Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour Annual Open Exhibition in 2023.
Her work is sold in galleries throughout Scotland and online, selling to private collectors worldwide.