Hélène
Vermote was born in Brussels,
Belgium and is living in Trois-Rivières, QC. Canada since
1977.
When she was only five years old she was fascinated by the
way her father could draw beautiful pictures and she was encouraged by
him to try and do the same. Drawing becomes very soon a favourite past
time and later on she will attend evening classes at a school of fine
arts in Brussels.
She decides not to become an artist, for the simple
reason
that someone has to put the daily bread on the table and she therefore
becomes a direction-secretary. She gets married and starts a family and
her art skills are put on a very low fire. In 1975 she will leave her
native Belgium and join her
husband in Berkeley, California. It is here that she really discovers
the intensity and different moods of the beautiful Californian light.
She takes up photography and will work a lot with this media.
In 1996,
she receives a box with good quality watercolour
pencils and this is the moment that she will take up her old hobby of
drawing and later on, painting.
In 1998 she starts working with oil
colours and, with time, this will become more and more Acrylics. Her
search for light in what ever she does is intense and
becomes the main object of her paintings. She will turn her holidays
into photo safaries and try to capture as much as possible the beauty
of nature and the changing intensity of the light.
Hélène will work on flowers, landscapes and as of
late, her macro flower paintings have been very well received. At this
moment, Hélène is moving more and more in the direction of animal painting where she
will bring to life her beloved Golden Retrievers. Here again,
seeing is believing....