Helen Clarke was born in 1945 in the wheatbelt of WA and her view of life has been influenced by that ever since. Her childhood was spent freely wandering around the farm and the bush, only having to appear at home at dinner time. Her memories of amazing flora and fauna are still with her.
Helen studied at TAFE in the 1980s in Perth and went on to lecture there for some years. Subsequently she and her partner sailed their lovely huon pine yacht around Australia, returning home in 1999 to try something else again.
She now lives on the back flats of Greenough south of Geraldton, WA, growing native plants and working in her studio. She travels around Australia recording the world around her and returns to the studio to use these images as bases for her artwork. She explores the relationships between the environment and people and records her interpretations of these.
She is concerned about the fragility of the environment and the viability of species affected by climate change. She wants her works to contribute to the appreciation of and understanding about the natural world surrounding us.
Helen Clarke is a printmaker who works mainly in the mediums of linocuts and etchings. Her etchings are often hand coloured with water colours.
She loves the processes of printmaking and the measured build up of imagery that can be created. In the process of reduction lino printing, the lino is carved away between each colour and it is this process of printing colours and carving away parts of the plate which result in an edition of prints and a piece of savaged lino which has seen better days.
She uses commercial oil-based printing inks in her lino prints. The inks are very viscous and she enjoys the build up of the layers to a lustrous, slightly pitted surface. As they take a long time to produce, up to 3 months in cooler weather, the editions are very small, usually less than 16 prints.
She exhibits in local and regional exhibitions and has solo exhibitions on a regular basis.