A touch of Icelandic air
Words: Tous Mag | Image Credits (unless otherwise stated): © Leia Morrison |
© Chip Skingley
Helen Booth leaves everything down to fate when it comes to her abstract paintings. Though vague ideas and trains of thought help inform each piece, at the crux of her experimental canvasses is the unpredictable force of gravity and the element of chance. Sporadic and almost nonsensical, from a linear perspective, each painting is a culmination of Booth’s explorative relationship with using paint. The works explore impulse and repetition, both representative - with repeated marks physically on paper - as well as process based - spending days mark making and entering a mediative state along the way. After each layer is applied, paint is then poured and dragged across the surface, Booth explains “this juxtaposition of imposed structure and the loosely applied layers is an emotional response to the process of painting.”
Memory and nature are two fundamental themes in Helen’s work. After a recent trip to Iceland, her urge to capture the essence of nature in its purest form has become a key motivator to her artistry. Striving to use colour that can be muted and dissolved in layers upon layers of white paint, she finds a quiet peace reminiscent of her love for colder climates.
Helen lives and works in an old woollen mill in South West Wales, roughly 20 minutes from the Cardigan Coast. The studio walls have several small scale paintings hung with tape and her large scale canvases tower over them around the room. There’s a raw and untouched feel to this studio, with exposed wooden floor panels splattered with old paint. We get the impression that this space is certainly lived in, that every mark made on the floor adds to the creativity of the space and the energy of the painter. Her marks are everywhere. Drips have been captured on the walls, from where the canvas once was, and trace her process of letting paint trickle down the surface until it meets the floor. Grey and white hues from the paintings, the floorboards, the walls, the natural lighting peering through; Helen experiences an embodiment of the transfixing Icelandic landscape with every moment in her studio.
For words straight from the artist read the interview, below!
Tous Mag: Helen, how would you describe your art if you were looking at it as a spectator?
Helen Booth: When I read comments about my work left in visitor books at exhibition openings, my work is often described as meditative and peaceful - that people are drawn to the work because it has a calm appearance. I would imagine that the work is also described as richly layered with colour hidden beneath the muted tones and that the repetitive marks, whether dots or lines have a textile quality to them.
If the work wasn’t mine and I was asked to describe the artwork on a wall in the gallery, I would say that it was beautiful, that the rhythm and the mark-making reminded me of paintings created by Brice Marsden and Cy Twombly and also perhaps the repetitive dots were similar to those of Ellen Gallagher and the early works of Eva Hesse.
Tous Mag: Do you think this changes if you were to describe your art talking from the perspective of the artist, instead?
Helen Booth: Yes, I think so. It’s a tricky question.
As an artist, you become so self-obsessed in many ways. Your ideas, the way you create your work and your influences determine how the painting evolves. I often refer back to the Agnes Martin Beauty lecture of 1989, where she states that “it is commonly thought that everything that is, can be put into words. But there is a wide range of emotional response that we make that cannot be put into words. We are so used to making these emotional responses that we are not consciously aware of them till they are represented in art work”.
My work is never predetermined – yes I have ideas and trains of thought, but more importantly I have a fundamental relationship with my materials. I use muted tones because the mark-making is central to the way the painting looks, I use oils because they have an organic quality, which means when I leave the studio in the evening and return the next morning the work will have altered slightly. I love this interplay between artist and materials and the emotional response to the artistic process.
Seeing the finished work on the gallery wall is a comma in the artistic process.
Tous Mag: Where are you based, and does the landscape around you impact your work or process of working?
Helen Booth: I live and work in an old woollen mill in South West Wales, about 20 minutes from the Cardigan Coast. I moved here in 1997 and the landscape, especially the grey flattening light of winter, is incredibly inspiring.
It’s hard not to be influenced by Nature here. Every season is heightened.
Tous Mag: Where did you grow up? What’s your strongest memory of your childhood?
Helen Booth: I was born in Burton on Trent – smack bang in the middle of England, miles away from the sea. I left at 17 to study painting at Wimbledon School of Art, graduating from Fine Art Painting in 1989.
My earliest memory as a child is falling off a gate and landing on a nail that went through my knee. (Not creative I’m afraid – just bloody painful!) My earliest creative memory was sitting next to my Nan learning how to knit. I was 3.
Tous Mag: Ouch! Are there any media/materials you want to explore working with that you haven’t yet?
Helen Booth: I have always wanted to learn how to do lithography – there’s something about the limestone and waxy materials that appeals. I have an etching press in my studio, which I use to create works on paper – but I’ve never tried litho – there is something so hit and miss about it that I like.
Tous Mag: We look forward to seeing some of your lithography experiments! What has been a strongly influential experience, artistically, for you?
Helen Booth: In 2019 I travelled to Iceland - a place that I always wanted to visit. I hate the heat and the idea of spending time in such a cold climate has always been a lifelong dream. It completely changed me. To witness the powerful landscapes and tenuous nature of the place was life affirming.
Earlier this year I was an Artist in Residence at the Hafnarborg Arts and Culture Centre in Southern Iceland. I left on March 3rd for a whole month of travelling and working in the residency space. I spent the first 2 weeks travelling along the southern part of the country – seeing the most incredible glaciers, icebergs and black beaches in the harshest winter in Iceland for 20 years.
This experience seems to have pulled all aspects of my creative practise together and I’m currently working on a new series of paintings in response to the experience.
Unfortunately, I had to leave early due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, but what I experienced and witnessed in the incredibly awe inspiring and menacing landscape will stay with me forever.
Tous Mag: That sounds incredible, hopefully you’ll return again. What role do you think art plays in society?
Helen Booth: It is the most important part of society. Creativity creates debate and offers solutions. Society without Art in any form would not be a society.
Tous Mag: What memorable responses have you had to your work?
Helen Booth: The most incredible responses I have had was winning both a Pollock Krasner Award for painting and also an Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation award for my artwork. They are both prestigious awards and gave me confidence in my own creative practise.
Tous Mag: What does the #ArtistSupportPledge mean to you?
Helen Booth: It’s been so important. I’ve been able to sell work to artists and buyers directly. I’ve talked to lots of art collectors who have been so supportive of my work and the financial assistance at this time has allowed me to keep working. With lots of my programmed exhibitions postponed and cancelled – it’s allowed me to connect with my audiences.
I’ve also purchased some lovely work from others artists. It’s a win win for me.
Tous Mag: It’s such a brilliant initiative. If we asked you to give an important message to our readers, more generally, what would it be?
Helen Booth: After returning from Iceland and seeing the glaciers and learning first-hand about the climate crisis – I’ve used this Lockdown time to think about my work and my environment closely. I now reuse my canvas by painting over unsuccessful work. I’ve also installed a wood burner in my studio which I fill with wood from my garden and I’ve started to grow my own vegetables.
As someone who is fundamentally inspired by Nature, I feel it is essential to be conscious of my effect on it.
Therefore, my message would be that change however small can make a difference, and that we should all try to make more sustainable and educated choices to help create a better world.
© Helen Booth
© Helen Booth