Her civil engineer father was always looking for new and exciting projects designing and overseeing work on dams, bridges and railways, so the family moved constantly around the country.

Influenced by her parents, Helen grew up with a deep love of art, literature and music. She trained as a nurse at Royal Melbourne Hospital and eighteen months after her graduation Helen and her husband emigrated to Canada, and worked in remote Inuit settlements in arctic Quebec and on Baffin Island. Her poems about Northern Canada were published in Ottawa.

Helen's first book Birthing in Paradise, published by Jarrahdale Press, contained stories and poems about her experiences in arctic Canada and remote Aboriginal settlements in Central Australia. She has recently published her second book Circles of Fortune, a fictionalised account of the life and times of the remarkable Dr Thomas Wilson, a man of great courage who made nine trips between Britan and Australia on convict ships, and was shipwrecked twice. He finally settled in New South Wales in Braidwood, a town named in his honour.

Artistic development

I attended art classes at the Contemporary Artist's Society in East Melbourne, and subsequently obtained a Diploma in Art from the Great Southern Regional College, Albany.

Wood fired pots became my passion and I built a kiln. I was also having a lot of fun with printmaking and painting.

My first exhibition of oil paintings was in Melbourne when I was 20. Subsequently I exhibited in Perth, Denmark and Albany. My work is in private collections, Great Southern TAFE and the University of New England.

My current creative interests lie in semi-abstract painting, life drawing and writing.

Contact Helen

Helen can be contacted directly using email: .