Helen Mason is an artist based in Co Wexford. Growing up in Slade on the Hook Peninsula, Helen spent much of her childhood sea swimming, fishing and exploring the rocks around the Hook Lighthouse, the oldest operational lighthouse in the world. Helen’s paintings are hugely inspired by those experiences and memories.
Little did she know then, that more than three decades later, she would have her first solo art exhibition in that very same lighthouse. The aptly named exhibition ‘Along the Rocks’, which focused on the social history of the area, was displayed in the cafe of the very famous lighthouse. Helen’s father worked in the lighthouse for years when she was a child.
Helen is self-taught. Her interest in painting was sparked in her 40’s when she took part in a community art class. Over time, this morphed into a creative side she had no idea she possessed. She had already spent much of her life in other creative areas such as architecture and the culinary arts so undoubtedly, the spark was always there!.
The sea is in her blood. She comes from a fishing family and married a fisherman. Helen spends a lot of time physically immersed in water – kayaking, rowing and sea swimming throughout the year. As a result, her art reflects that personal instinctive perspective and intuitively captures the constantly changing energy of the sea and solid permanence of the landscape.
Her paintings have been displayed in such galleries as the Cockleshell, Green Acres, Wexford Arts Centre and St Michael’s Theatre in New Ross. She is part of a four-person collective that ran and exhibited their work at the Gallery at Dunbrody House Hotel. Some of her art is now in private collections across the globe as well as being commissioned by hotels and newly designed homes.
