Helen Armstrong trained at Chelsea and Brighton art schools as a painter and printmaker. Has taught art and crafts, worked as an illustrator and graphic designer, and then trained as a counsellor and combined art work with a private counselling practice, including running groups using art for self knowledge. Now retired from counselling. Former Vice President of SIAC – Societe Internationale des Artistes Chretiens – 2000 – 2008, former President of Society of Sussex Painters 2009-2012. Has exhibited nationally and intentionally.
Interested in using new techniques, including using a computer to make drawings with the mouse, working in layers with Photoshop, which is similar otomaking a lithograph, and drawing on ipad with a finger.
Statement What pleases me in my art work is the way the other can be found in everyday life. A road sign, jet vapour trails, sunlight falling on net curtains, a reflection in a train window, all can evoke an awareness of what lies beneath the surface. Artists deal with surface, we work with materials and how they look. As a counsellor I looked beneath the surface to see what was happening in the unconscious. In my art work I like to combine these different approaches, enjoying the pleasure of the surface effects while reflecting on the deeper meanings that are also visible.
Helen Armstrong NDD, ATC, Ad Dip Couns,