Helen Kemp

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Please click on the Artist's names below to see examples of their work. Some of which are available in our current and previous exhibitions. Contact the gallery to check availability.

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Helen studied Ceramics at Edinburgh College of Art graduating in 1978, followed by Post-Graduate study of slip-cast work at Glasgow School of Art in 1979. In 1997 she received the Edinburgh Crystal Award for innovation and craftsmanship at the Association for Applied Arts “Centre of Attention” exhibition at the British Council, Edinburgh. In 1998, in collaboration with Paul Grime, she completed a ceramic tile mural for St. Hildas’s Primary School, Sunderland.

A year of free-lance Community Artwork was followed by a full-time post as an art instructor for Lothian Regional Council's Social Work Department, working with adults with learning difficulties. Job sharing this post allowed a return to ceramic work, hand painting furniture, and a period illustrating children's books. Since 1993 she has been producing hand modelled ceramics, using earthenware with underglaze stains, creating whimsical, dreamlike ceramic figures, incorporating and illustrating traditional sayings and rhymes. Helen has shown her distinctive work throughout Scotland, London, Dublin and New York.

“The inspiration for my work originally came from Mexican and American folk art and Victorian Straffordshire figures. This has developed into using traditional rhymes and sayings in some pieces. I aim to create a whimsical or dreamlike feeling in the work, sometimes through facial expressions, sometimes with the use of narrative. There is a gradual development of themes, with one piece leading often to another.

My ideas for this series of trees came from the Staffordshire flat-backs which include trees with small figures, often depicting a variety of events from Victorian rural life. I like the fruitful symbolism of the tree and use it to portray the dreams, wishes or fantasies of the characters. Some become family trees of one sort or another. In some pieces the tree becomes a person escaping the complexities and turmoil of modern life to become a natural, productive and creative being.”

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