Sue Helmot is a contemporary Australian landscape artist. For over a decade Sue has been based in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia, which has served as the primary source of inspiration behind her current body of work. Based on profound personal interactions with nature, the artist depicts intimate portraits of her surrounding environment.
With a diverse career in the arts spanning 40 years, Sue’s love of paint was reignited after relocating to a remote outback town. She was taken by the extraordinary beauty of the landscape. Vast desert claypans and the dusky foothills of Kennedy Range providing idyllic natural subjects to paint.
Developing a deep respect for the land, the artist’s immersive creative process sees her spend extended periods of time on location, where the nuances of the land are documented in vivid colour studies. Back in her studio, she draws on memories and sensory feelings to convey the landscape and the atmosphere of the moment — imbuing her work with the essence of the experience itself.
Capturing a softness and resilience in her work through thinly veiled brushwork and layers of oil paint, both new and aged, Sue explores the possibilities of colour and texture with gentle curiosity. Whatever place the artist finds herself in, she seeks to represent peaceful encounters that are conscious of the ever-changing light, texture and colour around her.
Sue holds a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) from Victoria College of the Arts. Her work has been exhibited in a number of solo and group exhibitions and acquired by both public and private collections in Australia and Europe. Sue is currently a Finalist in The Jury Art Prize 2022 and was awarded Overall Winner of the Gascoyne Art Awards in 2021.
