Helen Booth Falling Softly, 2024

Helen Booth, born in Burton on Trent in 1967, is an accomplished artist based in West Wales. She graduated with a Fine Art Painting degree from Wimbledon School of Art in 1989, and a residency at the Hafnarborg Arts and Culture Centre in Iceland, funded by Wales Arts International, has been pivotal in shaping her artistic journey.

Booth's work has received significant recognition, including awards from the Pollock Krasner Foundation and the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, which have supported intense creative phases in her studio. In 2023, she held a major solo exhibition at Oriel Davies. Her art has received notable awards, including the Welsh Based Artist Prize from Glyn Vivian Gallery and the BEEP International Painting Prize Biennial. Helen Booth’s works are held in private collections worldwide, reflecting the universal appeal of her practice.

A cloud of snow passes a mountain, a wash of paint passes a canvas. What remains of these moments, glimmers on the surface, like rain on a hillside, with white gradually shrouding the marks, built layer by layer. The rhythm of painting - covering, layering, building, and erasing—lies at the heart of this work. The motion of making is balanced by the creative process of destruction and concealment. Each mark is placed, only to be muted with white, washed away with turpentine or diminished, hidden, or paired with another.

Working on such an intimate scale magnifies every gestural point. There are fewer places to hide, so more are made with the paint. Every stroke becomes a dialogue with time, speaking to the ineffable nature of empty space. Though, true emptiness cannot exist here, the pursuit lies in the attempt.

This work meditates on the rhythm of nature, the delicate duality of creation and destruction.