Collection: Helen Dean

Originally from the UK, Helen  has called New Zealand her home since 2003. Though having completed a Fine Arts degree in the UK , Helen began painting again after a long hiatus after moving from Auckland city life to the lush Waitakere bush.

Since then, Helen has established a regular painting practice and exhibited her paintings in New Zealand shows and galleries. Her artworks can be found in private collections around NZ and overseas.

Her work has been commissioned for luxury interiors, including 10 large paintings  for Auckland’s ‘Horizon Hotel by SkyCity’, and she has collaborated with a high-end New Zealand fashion designer to create artwork transformed into fabric prints. Helen regularly undertakes private commissions for collectors in New Zealand, Australia, and the UK. More recently Helen created her largest body of work for  her solo show ‘Colour & Time ‘ in June  at Turua Gallery, St Heliers

Helen’s work explores the tension between spontaneity and control. She disrupts the flatness of the painting’s surface through layers of over-painting, combining heavily gestural marks with soft, glazed sections. Embracing imperfections and messiness, she allows traces of the painting process to remain, leaving behind evidence of the human hand.

Rooted in abstract expressionism, Helen’s work balances intention with raw, instinctive movement. She describes painting as an immersive experience where time shifts, and the act of layering colour and form becomes a meditative process.

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