Helen Griffiths

I would never leave the house without a pencil and paper or something that I could create with.

For as long as I can remember, I have always filled my time with drawing, painting or creating inone way or another.  I would never leave the house without a pencil and paper or something that I could create with.  After graduating from the Sheridan College Illustration Program, I worked as a freelance artist in the commercial arts field.

 

Eventually I joined a group of artists who painted portraits in the evenings using a live model.  I switched from my first love, watercolours, to oils, and completely fell in love with the medium.  Gradually, I had amassed a collection of work in my studio.  I placed a few pieces on the walls of local shops.  They were well-received and sold immediately.  Eventually, I began to combine my passion for birds with my love of painting.  Personifying birds, but never humanizing them, telling stories I wanted to share.  I entered paintings into juried shows and received numerous awards and recognition for my work.

 

I continue to sell my work in local venues, galleries and art shows and am an elected member of the Ontario Society of Artists.  I paint en plein air regularly and from models as often as I can.  But, more often than not, I can be found happily painting in my home studio in Burlington, Ontario.  The most important lesson I have learned is to trust myself and to create paintings that have meaning to me.