Hello. I’m Helen B Wilson and this is my bio….

I was born in Scotland in 1981 in the heaviest snowfall Scotland has had to date. I think the endless darkness of that winter has subconsciously played a big role in the themes of my work.

In 2003 whilst studying at Central Saint Martin’s college of Art and Design in London, I watched a short film at the Curzon cinema in Soho by David Lynch called ‘The Grandmother’. I was totally enamoured by the ghostly little boy wearing a tuxedo that the film centres around. Since that point I have predominately stuck with the theme of children dressed in clothes that children wouldn’t usually wear (but not going so far as to call them ‘costumes’). I frequently look towards the work of Loretta Lux, Laurie Lipton, Gottfried Helnwein and Floria Sigismondi for inspiration, although fashion photography is the primary starting point for most of my paintings.

Since 2007 I have been working from a studio in the industrial enclave of Hackney Wick in East London. After graduating from college I spent a couple of years working as a graphic designer before moving to Los Angeles to live on the beach, drink coffee and do little else. Los Angeles is my favourite city. I love the Hollywood Hills and Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Dee Dee Ramone is buried here.

I like to travel. Recent trips to the Ossuary outside Prague, the Yusopov Palace in St. Petersburg, the site of Rasputin’s attempted murder, Mad King Ludwig II’s fairytale castle, Neuschwanstein in Bavaria and Bran Castle in Transylvania, the inspiration behind Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’, provide strong themes in my work.

In addition to being a portrait artist and painter I trained in taxidermy under the tutelage of George Jamieson and have a keen interest in Victorian taxidermy, another recurring theme in my work.

Alongside working from my studio I work for The Last Tuesday Society Curiosity Shop in Bethnal Green, home to a macabre collection of mortuary tables, shrunken heads, human and animal skulls, taxidermy, two-headed baby skeletons all of which are a delightful source of influence in my practice.

That’s all for now.
HBW