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About the artwork and artist
Artist: Helen Girard
My northern experience started when I moved to Yellowknife, NWT where I lived for over 20 years. I had the chance to travel to different regions which initiated the desire to paint the beauty surrounding me.
The north so pure, vast and untouched, so colourful with its changes of seasons. Bare lands and this attraction and marvel I have with ice formations, snow and icebergs have been an eternal source of inspiration.
Later on living in northern Quebec in a small community. Renewing my sources with the north. Feeding my art with scenes of blizzards, blowing snow, feelings of coldest and warmth brought by the colours a 6 hours long sunset can create, the wildlife and its people.
And Antarctica. It has open my heart even more. The bareness and crispness of the landscapes. The coldness, blues, squared and sculpted shapes, the harshness, grandiose and amazingly beautiful!
Like walking into a new world. Stillness filled with birds, seals and penguins. Other places empty of life yet vibrant and alive! Telling me stories of past explorers who dared adventure themselves. For me an exhilarating experience which lives within ever since. And that wind... which shapes and changes everything.
Through my art I want to bring attention to these 2 worlds. They need to win the heart of the people before they change forever. Painting the arctic and the antarctic, how can the artist in me be more happy! I dream, I remember and I want to share!