Woody Pear

The Art of Australian Printmaker Helen Clarke


About the Artist



Helen Clarke is a fine art printmaker. She spent her childhood on a farm in Western Australia and was surrounded by bush rich in unique flora and fauna which she explored every day. This is the basis for her love of the land.

Helen's current works are hand-coloured etchings and reduction relief prints exploring the landscape and flora of Australia.
Explorations into the fragility and durability of memory shown by fragments left behind by former generations are a growing interest as she lives in a century-old former convent in an historic farming area of the mid-west of Western Australia

The medium of reduction lino printing enables the artist to use strong colour and texture. Reduction linoprints are created by printing up to 25 oil colours and cutting the lino plate between each colour printed to produce a lustrous, textured surface. Because of the complex nature of the process, the editions are usually limited to less than twenty prints and cannot be reprinted as the plate is destroyed with the process of printing.


Statement:
I am concerned about the fragility of the environment and the viability of species affected by climate change.
I explore past, current and future relationships between people and the natural world around us.