MAPPING SPACES: HELEN IRELAND
Available works

'The landscapes of Helen Ireland, with their elaborate surfaces start life by being carefully mapped out using a series of precise grids. Through the painstaking process of measuring, working and reworking, nature is plotted into something precise and often geometric. Helen speaks of trying to create a ‘logo of a memory’, turning an impression into a formal composition. Through her work, the wildness and unpredictably of the natural world is tamed. The external influences fade away and the painting becomes a stand-alone piece with a life of its own. Here is ‘colour through nature’.

Atmosphere is important to her. Climate, weather, and light – open space, sunsets. Through a process of magic (as well as industry), these works become patchwork quilts of squares or tiles, based on the green fields of the countryside, but blazing with a life of their own. They may be inspired by nature but by weaving them into something non-figurative, almost ephemeral, they become nature rendered abstract, like Agnes Martin’s stripes or Prunella Clough’s biomorphic shapes.'

- Alice Chasey, 2023