One to watch: first solo show for Newbury software developer turned painter
Emerging artist Helen Orton’s first solo exhibition of new paintings To See Oneself is to Recognise Oneself opened on Tuesday at The Base Gallery, Greenham. It runs to March 30.
Formerly a software designer and developer, with a degree in business operation and control from the University of Salford and the University of Toledo in the US, Orton made a career change in 2020 to concentrate full time on painting after studying portrait painting and life drawing for many years.
Helen is a figurative painter who translates photographs and art historical references into paintings that explore the complexities of living in a chaotic and uncertain world. She responds to source images of the human form by transforming them into paintings with evocative titles that invite the viewer to contemplate the tension between the figure's inner and public selves.
“I use the human form in my paintings to explore the experience of existing in a world that is difficult to understand at a time of fear and uncertainty. My aim is to suggest collective truths and to evoke a sense of empathy so that the viewer may connect with the figures depicted and feel a sense of recognition.
“In a visual world where we are constantly bombarded with images, my approach to creating my paintings in terms of form, colour and texture aims to invite a slower, more contemplative experience of looking.
“I generally use photographs as an initial source for my paintings and then aim to move the paintings beyond the subject, translating and transforming to give form to my ideas.”
The exhibition explores the fragmented experience of self-knowledge and public perception of the self in an image saturated world. Using photographic and art historical sources, the work explores the themes of observing and being observed with the consciousness of being seen or being looked at, sometimes without consent.
The title of the exhibition draws on the philosophical writing of the 19th century Danish writer Søren Kierkegaard, who explores the idea of the mirror as a metaphor for self examination. The work in the exhibition draws on this idea of the mirror metaphor, often placing the viewer in the position of the figure depicted and invites the viewer to consider the complex interplay between the perceived self and the public self.
Helen Orton was born in Melton Mowbray in 1973 and currently lives and works in Chaddleworth.
She has exhibited locally and in 2024, her painting ‘To See Oneself is to Recognise Oneself’ was included in the Women in Art Fair at the Mall Galleries in London during Frieze week. And also last year, she was shortlisted for the Visual Arts Open UK and International Emerging Artists Awards.
FREE entry.
Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am - 5pm (including Mon 24 March)
The Gallery will be closed to the public for workshops during the following times.
Sat 22 March and Sun 23 March, 10 - 5pm
Thu 27 March, 2pm - 5pm
Sat 29 March, 2pm - 5pm
