HELEN CARTER – BETWEEN TIDES

“I am drawn to the vast range of scenery the word ‘landscape’ encompasses, finding it to be a continuing source of inspiration and intrigue. I have recognised a yearning within me to travel to landscapes that can only be reached through the processes of painting and printmaking. These landscapes are where my thoughts are at once free to wander and free to be utterly still. Something seems to happen during the act of making, a new way of thinking, a different vantage point, a switching over to another kind of consciousness.

My practice investigates pathways and pools of light, intention and chance, substance and immateriality. I am interested in finding something from nothing, gently teasing the painting out from the board, as an act of discovery rather than description. Experimentation with the relationship between turpentine and oil paint is therefore integral to my painting process. I am fascinated by the range of textures and effects that can be created by washing and dripping turpentine onto layers of paint. These unpredictable reactions result in a lessening of control, allowing me to see visual possibilities that I had not previously considered.

Each painting in the Between Tides series is a memento of a period of meditation; of mark marking, of rubbing out and starting again. The rhythms of the sea matching the rhythms of the breath.” – Helen Carter