Helen Denerley Studio Visit

 

Every studio visit is different and offers an insight into the way that an artist creates and also the everyday context that feeds into and is fed by their work. A visit to Helen Denerley is a special one. We drove over a suspension challenging road and saw the river flowing, sculptures appearing in the grass and through the trees and eventually Helen’s home and studio appearing. There was warming soup and cheese toasties for us upon arrival, before a lively tour of the indoor studio and outside collection of meticulously organised scrap metal, whisky bar, painting studio, and yet to be finished pottery studio. And talk of poetry and 70th birthday parties!

 

Helen is one of those artists both interesting and interested – she is a creator of sculptures but also of warmth, friendships and community. From her rural Aberdeenshire home she has built and developed an artist residency centre which nourishes her own creativity and growth as much as that of the artists who come for a month at a time. These are artists of every stripe – painters, sculptors, dancers, poets, musicians.

 

 

There are regular collaborations with poets and writers – she has collaborated numerous times with the poet Michael Longley – and she collects paintings and sculptures by her favourite artists, sometimes buying and sometimes swapping work. A favourite George Wylie sculpure stands outside – a long time friend and mentor, and her home is filled with paintings by Peter White and Pat Semple and many others. A half finished bird sculpure is bound for Lotte Globb in exchange for one of Lotte’s book sculptures.

 

 

Helen talks about the importance of artists sharing thoughts and encouraging one another. The paintings and sculptures that fill her walls and shelves are as much friends and co-conspiritors as objects of beauty and craft. Her home glows and fizzes with the energy of kindred spirits and artistic connections made over the years. It is a home she has built herself, from arriving decades ago with two young children and no electricity. Bit by bit, piece by piece she has put all this together.

 

Helen’s work and her life are one. A poetic observation of the value and interconnectedness of all life drives her to create, connect and build in all that she does – her sculptures, home, friendships and community. What a joy it was to meet her!