Helen Steele

"A Little Sunshine" Mixed Media Landscape Abstract Expressionist

2012

Artist Statement: My compositions are never preconceived, yet my themes are recurrent: the use of the figure as the means of investigating various psychological states: harmony, serenity, anxiety, and isolation... The figure is my starting point, not my true subject. My subjects are human presence and absence. My approach is intuitive, suggesting rather than detailing. As I work and rework my canvas the image appears sometimes only to elude me then to reassert itself much later. I work in multiple layers with buried images and words. paint is wiped off and layers are peeled yielding the emerging image. Symbolic markings, personal imagery, shapes, and words appear, and questions arise. Intimacy is translated through the sensuality of line, the simplest and subtlest of my tools. The line can be bold and assertive or sublime and quite sensual. Biography: 1961 - Born in Eisenstadt, Germany 1982 - 1987 - Studied at the Ludwigs Maximilian University in Munich 1987 - Earned master’s degree in art education, art history, and psychology 1986 - 1988 - Master studies with Hans Daucher, Capri, Italy 1987 - Move to Los Angeles, CA 1987 - 1988 multiple exhibitions in Los Angeles, ca 1988 - Move to San Rafael, CA 1991 - 2005 - Art Instructor 1999 - 2002 - Studies with Linda Goodman 1988 - 2018 - exhibitions in California, Colorado, Georgia, New Mexico, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, and Idaho