HELENGAI HARBOTTLE

It is a pleasure to present this show of paintings and drawings by Helengai Harbottle, six years after her first solo exhibition at North House Gallery in 2019, although she has since contributed to the gallery’s mixed 20th and 25th Anniversary Shows in 2019 and 2024 respectively.

There are over one hundred items, large and small in the show. Many of the smaller works, mostly Suffolk landscapes, are painted with unusual vigour in thick paint on board or canvas, while the much larger paintings in oil on board are bold and gestural in thinner paint. There is a darkness in the monochrome drawings and paintings of birds and night landscapes, but brighter and gentler paintings (including a surprising little series of nudes) show a love of, and facility with, colour.

Helengai Harbottle has been a full time painter for over two decades. She studied painting at the Slade School of Art, London (1996-2002) under the tutelage of Norman and Tom Norris, Jenny Saville, Lucy Jones, Paul Richards, Andrew Stahl, Liz Arnold, Jo Volley and Euan Uglow, amongst others. While at the Slade she won the Monnington Prize and spent a semester at the New York Studio School in Manhattan.

Helengai’s move to the Slade marked the end of a successful career as a textile designer in the fashion business where she was known as an innovative pattern maker and colourist (MA Royal College of Art and winner of several awards - Leigh Bowery made a jacket from her final show fabric). Helengai also taught at the Royal College of Art.

Helengai has shown mainly in East Anglia: at the Merchant House Gallery, Lowestoft; at The Cut, Haleworth; at Norwich Museum and North House Gallery.