Helen Peyton is an printmaker specialising in limited edition lino monoprint and lino reduction prints.
Lino printing is a hand-crafted art and Helen creates her prints on a Victorian printing press that is the complete opposite to high tech, this one is no tech!
Helen is founder and artist in residence of Smart Gallery, the social museum and art gallery, her linocuts are in response to the artefacts the public lend, objects of personal significance that they believe should be saved for posterity in this temporary exhibition and online collection. Her contemporary linocuts are dynamic and thoughtful, due to anecdotal and personal nature of the artefacts. This project was inspired by her ongoing love of objects, their stories, histories and their association to our emotions.
Smart Gallery was long listed for the 2015 Turner Prize and has been awarded judge’s awards for Open Up North, at Abbot Hall, Kendal and the Flourish Award at West Yorkshire Print Workshop. Recent works have been exhibited and collected by the Royal Academy, Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal Society of Painter/ Printmakers as well as Leeds City Art Gallery where Helen is Artist Ambassador and The Hepworth Wakefield where she is a Resident Artist.
Helen is an avid promoter of all things print and has developed many unique and creative pop up printmaking spaces with exhibition, studio and workshop, showcasing the various techniques and letting the public experience them hands on. Past topics for her work have included the sky at night, and ancient Yorkshire landscapes.
Three of her retro themed lino reduction prints were selected for the prestigious Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2011 and 2012 in London, and hung alongside works by Tracy Emin, Paula Rego, and Jim Dine. One of the images (the record player) was chosen from the work of hundreds of artists to be an official Royal Academy greetings card which is on sale in art outlets throughout the world, and on this website.
Helen regularly exhibits her work in galleries and museums. She is a member of Printmakers Circle – a collective of Yorkshire based print artists.
Helen is also a photographer and her work appears in several published books including ‘Looking up in London’ and ‘Looking up in Edinburgh’. She teaches art and design, and lives in Upper Wharfedale in the Yorkshire Dales.