Helen A. Shaw

Some of my abstracts are non-objective and non-representational, while others contain recognizable objects presented in an abstract manner. They are inspired by everyday things I see—perhaps an evocative still life or photograph. Or, the imagery might derive from thoughts, ideas and musings coursing through my imagination.

For example, Piece Making emerged from an attempt to represent the complexity and creativity in modern quilt-making as demonstrated by an accomplished quilter friend. On the other hand, Red Onion and Tomatillos came about from a still life of two vegetables used in Tex-Mex foods favored by my Texas-born husband. 

My landscape images are mostly from photos and memories of growing up in Kentucky and from my later years spent in the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina.

As I paint, I am thinking about how the light, color and shadows form the shape of the land and how best to express the mood and/or story that I feel in the scene.

For example, the barn in Last Diary Barn in Greensboro reminded me of my Dad's dairy and the loss of such farms as cities spread outward to consume the farmland.

Painting flora the way I do is my way of honoring the somewhat lesser appreciated species of plants, as opposed to the spectacularly blooming plants such as roses, peonies, hibiscus, azaleas and others. The varieties I paint are mostly in my yard, and therefore I can observe at different stages and seasons. To me, the leaves of these plants just as interesting as their blooms.

Abstracting them—as in Evening Jasmine—was especially fun to paint due to the pleasing shape of the leaves. I like to paint plants up close and from an angle that emphasizes light, shadow and interesting shapes.  

This miscellaneous grouping contains mostly still lifes and representational abstracts. They mostly depict everyday scenes in which I experimented with composition, background, texture or value. 

In Bowls and Bottles, for example, the multicolored palette provide form and value to the bottles, the bowl and the background.