Ileigh Hellier is an emerging artist currently based in Mulubinba / Newcastle, New South Wales. Hellier’s practice encompasses a range of mediums including painting, printmaking and sculpture.
Within each painting, Hellier continues her gentle exploration of the landscape, inspired by a personal sense of wonderment felt towards the natural world. Through soft layers of transparent colour and line, Hellier’s work captures the delicacy of the landscape, inspired by moments of weather and spaces where the horizon intersects with the sky and water. Both sensitive and playful, Hellier’s paintings flitter between figuration and abstraction, caught in a delicate balancing act that dances between the real and imagined, as well as capturing both a sense of playful naivety and emotional acuity.
Hellier’s work is often dotted with reoccurring motifs, such as fruit trees, butterflies and lagoons, each symbolising the importance of poetic expression to help describe her inner and natural worlds. Guided by an intuitive approach, each work evolves naturally, compositions informed through a combination of bold forms and painterly expressions. Overall Hellier’s work captures the inquisitiveness and joy that is universally shared from exploring and cherishing our natural world.
Ileigh Hellier has received commended awards in both the Jacaranda Drawing Prize in 2022 and The John Glover Prize in 2020. Her work is held in both public and private collections nationally.
Exhibitions
