New in my shop!

Here are some of my new prints now available in my online shop at www.helenhallows.com They are limited edition giclee prints and are printed in a run of 100. Backed by the Fine Art Trade Guild the inks are guaranteed and the paper is of the highest quality. My amazing printer has a fantastic eye for colour and detail meaning he is able to capture all the richness and texture of the original artwork. The first time he handed me a print, I thought it was the original!

Garden Angel

Full Bloom

On the Move

Radiant Light

Faded Summer

Tree of Life

Garden Shine

Summer is still shining her light here and I am soaking it up and storing it! I'm juggling family days with studio days. Colour is every where and it is soaking into my soul. I love this time of year, the days feel full and nature is bountiful. We've started to crop our produce at the allotment and are enjoying courgettes, blackberries, plums and beans. 

In the garden I see the sun in everything, the apples are swelling, the sunflowers reaching for the sky. This rudbeckia is my latest addition to the garden along with some dahlias that are going to sing their song as summer fades.

The sun is infusing my work too. It's life giving force has been a powerful symbol in art through all time. Ever since childhood I've enjoyed drawing that circle of radiating light. I'm going to use these images in the darker days of Autumn and Winter to remind myself of that warm energy. If you'd like to create a sun collage, an amulet of summer energy, why not join me for my creative collage workshop on Saturday October 10th in Long Eaton? 

'Shine like the Sun' is available to book here. If you can't come to an in-person workshop you can find out more about my connection to nature and the seasons and how you can use them to develop your creativity by listening to my spoken word creative visualisation CD 'I am Nature'. Available in my online shop for £10.

A thing for sheds

It probably comes as no surprise that I have a thing for sheds! My studio is a glorified shed, our allotment has two sheds and it seems that every home I've lived in has come with a shed, full of interesting oddities and vintage ephemera; old tins, plant labels, jars, rusty tools.  A happy weekend is one that takes me to a garden and a peelly painted shed to ogle at. After the summer holidays I had a file on my computer called 'Produce' that documented some of my peelly paint shed loving experiences around the UK! So it seemed fitting to take inspiration from garden sheds and the patina of, and objects there in, for a photo shoot for my range of vases. It has given me great pleasure to find a purpose for the old tins, postcards, boxes, and bits and bobs that fill up drawers and sit on shelves, and to create some product shots for my shop. There are nine vases in total. They sit together well in groups, along themes of Autumn or Spring....or those with birds....or those with cottages. I hope they make charming gifts...for yourself or loved ones.

Shhhh...it's a Secret Craft Fair

On the 15th and 16th June I will be taking part in a Secret Craft Fair in Loughborough. It will be the joyful union of gardening, art and craft at the open garden of Janet Currie. She will be proudly opening her garden for the first time as part of the NGS Open Gardens and will be the only garden in Loughborough to have received that accolade. Janet and partner Pete Mosley have got used to visitors being impressed by their home and garden when they host their regular Refectory Table events. So now it's your turn to enjoy it too.

I will be selling a range of garden inspired originals, prints, new decorative tiles and cards. You can read more about the event, here, and in an interview I did with Janet Currie, here.

A Slow Spring

Love and Life

Since moving in to my studio at the bottom of the garden, some of my work has been inspired by my home surroundings and my love of growing things. Looking out on to the garden watching the chickens and the birds go about their daily rituals and routines, I am inspired to keep on with mine. It really has been a slow spring but now my garden is glorying in its greenness.