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Major Series
The following series denote the major areas of exploration in my work.
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"Antarctica"
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Antarctica - In 2003 Helen Sanderson went to Antarctica on the ship
“Polar Pioneer” with Aurora Expeditions owned by Greg Mortimer, the first
Australian to climb Mt Everest.
The ship left from Ushuaia in South America and went
directly to the Antarctic Peninsula and then on to Elephant Island, the South
Shetland Islands, the South Orkney Islands, South Georgia and the Faulkland
Islands before returning to Ushuaia. The trip was loosely following in the
steps of Ernest Shackleton, the British explorer.
Helen drew each day….weather on the Drake Passage
permitting! The crossings were mostly very rough. She kept a daily drawn
journal. The bridge on the ship was always open to passengers, and Helen
mostly drew from that vantage point. She used the concertina book format and
scrolls to draw long lengths of coastline as the ship sailed past. She also
took thousands of digital images.
She is
currently producing a series of work based on this remarkable experience. Here
are some of the artist’s books from this series, as a foretaste of things to
come. The Antarctica exhibition will be held at the Maria Perides Gallery at Newstead in
Brisbane.
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"Past
and Present"
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 Past
and Present
is the most recent work in the Farm Series by Helen Sanderson. This exhibition
of oil paintings has three parts. There are the memory paintings of the farm
from when Helen was a child…..the physical differences in how it looked forty
years ago, noting the old methods of farming. The next part shows the
Ballandean of today ..with the rebirth it is undergoing as a vigorous new
wine growing centre, with vast replantings of wine grapes. The last part is
exploring the phenomena Helen experiences in her travels around the world
where she finds landscapes that bring her poignantly back to “home”.
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- "The
Farm"
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 In
the Farm Series, I work with the special images that relate to
my country childhood, such as the big open skies, the hills surrounding
the farm and the grape vines planted and grown by my grandfather,
uncle and father on the border highlands in south eastern Queensland, at
Ballandean. These painted landscapes establish a link between family history
and place through imagery and text. This is especially so in the
Correspondence and Postcard series within the Farm Series. I have been
intermittently working on the Ballandean landscape in Queensland's Granite
Belt area since 1990.
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- "The
Symphony"
 Another
series I have worked on is the Symphony Orchestra Series. This series
began one night at an all Tchaikovsky concert by the Queensland Symphony
Orchestra at QPAT in Brisbane. I took along ten prepared etching
plates to the performance, and drew directly onto the surface of each plate
to begin the series. The plates were then taken back to the studio for
the slow etching process to be completed. This series is printed on 100%
cotton rag paper. There are 10 etchings which have been
editioned to25. Accompanying this series are other monoprints,
drawings , and several artist’s books. Helen Sanderson – the
Symphony Orchestra Series toured Queensland with the Queensland
Arts Council. There are other series of etchings, artist's books and
monoprints within the Symphony Series.
- "Music"
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The Music Series is a body of collage works created for an exhibition
at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre at Southbank in Brisbane. The
series explores my emotional response to particular works of classical
music. It is a natural progression from previous bodies of work
exploring symphony players. Throughout the series imagery of musical
instruments and actual musical text are incorporated with a wide range of
collage papers and lace. Decorative elements and repetition are explored,
along with the sheer power of music to move the soul. Helen
Sanderson - the Music Series has been selected by the Queensland
Arts Council to tour regional Queensland in 2000-2001.
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- "The
Dance"
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 The
Dance Series is a body of works on paper completed while I was
artist-in-residence with the Australian Folkloric Dance Company, now World
Dance. I worked directly from the dancers while they were in
rehearsal. Each day began with drawing the dancers warming up, and
then I began working furiously inking up a marble block and directly drawing
into the surface to create spontaneous imagery of the dancers rehearsing,
which were then printed onto 100% cotton rag paper. The works respond to the
wonderful movement of the dancers and the music that was integral to each
work. The bulk of works in this series are works on paper, with some artist’s
books and paintings on canvas. Helen Sanderson – the Folkloric Dance
Series toured regional Queensland with the Queensland Arts Council.
- "Artists
Book"
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 The
Artists Book Series is an ongoing exploration of the
book as a sculptural vessel. These works are all different, and are
usually part of the general body of work I am working on at any
given point in time. Each book is unique and its physical shape
reflects mostly the subject matter it is exploring. Most of the books
require hand stitching, some are folded and use other construction
methods. Some contain drawings, and a few examples can be seen on the
Gallery page under miscellaneous.
- "Paper
- Edwards Dunlop"
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 The
Edwards Dunlop Paper Project displays work created by Helen Sanderson
after being appointed Artist
in Residence with Edwards Dunlop Paper as part of the New Possibilities for
Paper international conference to be held in July 2001 at University of
Sunshine Coast.
Helen's Paper Project images are in four sections:
New Possibilities for Paper is an innovative international project
looking at re-presenting paper as a medium for the contemporary world.
Work
will be selected for the Paper as Object exhibition which will open at Noosa
Regional Gallery in June 2001.
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