Helena Kuttner-Giasson
Clinton Township, MI
The watercolors and acrylic paintings of Helena Kuttner-Giasson capture nature's most intimate and dramatic moments.
MessageThe watercolors and acrylic paintings of Helena Kuttner-Giasson capture nature’s most intimate and dramatic moments. She invites the viewer to share in her love of the natural world, and recapture moments lost to the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
As a child, Giasson found her voice through art. The daughter of Soviet Block refugees, she found her drawings of horses, birds, and flowers an effective cultural bridge while she grappled with learning the English Language.
Throughout her early childhood years, she was encouraged to continue drawing by various teachers, and her parents enrolled her in private oil painting lessons under the tutelage of Michda, a Ukrainian painter whose studio was in her home town.
She studied figure drawing by copying the graphic posters of Mucha, and fell in love with the bold black ink work juxtaposed against the human form and various floral motifs.
This preparation enabled her to enter the University of Michigan School of Art, now known as the Penny Stamps School of Art, where she learned skills in observation and interpretation of the world into various art media.
After leaving the university, Giasson parted ways with her art for several years, before embarking on a journey of translating her knowledge of Art Nouveau and Art Deco to create designs on glass and mirror for various companies. When the industry was undercut by imported product, Giasson had to set her art aside and work in various offices as a clerk to support herself and her family.
A six month leave enabled her to rediscover her desire to create images on paper and canvas. Giasson states, “Those were the two most difficult decades of my life. One year I managed to only paint a single watercolor. Caught up in the daily treadmill of survival, I slowly began to realize that the longer I was out of the element of the natural world, and away from my art practice, the more despondent I had become.”
As a child, Giasson recalls her parents devoted love of the natural world, and a road trip across the great American west, where she encountered images of the vast beauty and expanse of this great country. When her leave from office work took place, she began painting and drawing feverishly, and all the western images unfolded from her memories, spontaneously created with a palette knife and swirls of acrylic paint. She also took up a discipline to draw from still life and retrained her eye after decades of neglect.
In 2013 an injury limited her ability to maintain employment, and with the blessing of her husband, she endeavored to create a living from her work.
Over these last few years, her childhood influences have become a strong presence in her work. “I cannot feel a piece is truly finished unless it has the graphic lines incorporated into it.” she says of her florals.
Giasson works in two styles, abstracted landscapes primarily in acrylic, and tightly rendered and composed florals in both acrylic and watercolor. She feels that both are necessary to maintain a sense of creative balance and artistic challenge. “A stint of creating tightly compose florals is relieved by letting the muse guide my palette and my hand with the landscapes that reside deep within my mind.”
Giasson also notes that it has taken several years to meld her influences into her present style. Graphic posters from the early 20th century, the raw unedited paintings of Van Gogh, and various Impressionist influences weave their way into her style.
“When I was a young woman, part of me felt I had nothing to say, artistically. Now, I realize that we have become so separated from our natural world, that sustains our very lives, creating images of nature is the most healing form of art for both myself and others.”
She also notes, that her series have become influenced by actual life experiences that come from living in the tempo of the natural world.
“I don’t have a schedule, per se, and spend a great deal of the summer and fall months working in my gardens, and observing what living creatures come my way in the suburban setting.”
After she spends hours observing and interacting with the natural world, a spontaneous series always takes place, revolving around the inspiring theme.
“I don’t know when I shall paint birds again, but after watching a migratory airport in my yard the fall of 2016, I simply sat down and created watercolors of them from my initial impressions and emotions.”
In 2017, the loss of a Red Spruce, which had been a haven for many species of birds, inspired her to research the human meaning behind Evergeens from a cultural standpoint, and to create a series of artwork to honor the loss.
“I discovered that those trees, in their many species typically have a meaning of Peace to many European cultures. I find that meaning appropriate to counterbalance what is transpiring in today’s world. Hence Pinecones of Peace were created. I enjoyed exploring them in both watercolor and acrylic. It was also an ode to my father who had a distinct love of them, planting over 50 in the course of his lifetime.”
Many of Giasson’s private commissions are noted by anecdotes of how healing and inspiring the work is to her clients, reminding them of people and places fondly remembered.
As Giasson has worked through stages of being a re-emerging artist, she notes that the type of art she creates does not lend itself to competitions. “This is spiritual work that is not meant to compete with others, only to complement their lives.”
To that extent, many of her pieces are available only through special shows, and online. She senses yet another style evolution on the horizon, “I am visualizing the birds mingling with the flowers on a larger scale, and the landscapes layered in holographic dimension using cutting edge acrylic mediums.”
Helena Kuttner-Giasson contact information:
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://www.FineArtForSmallspaces.com
Statement
I work in two contrasting methods and styles which give me a sense of artistic balance and reflect both the chaos and order in nature, which is my predominant subject matter. My intuitive method begins with a basic color palette which is added to instinctively as the piece develops.
In this method I draw upon memories of experiences in the natural world, such as trips out West or walks on one of many of Michigan’s lakeshores. Channeling feelings of movement and color, I use acrylic with both a brush and a palette knife to model the scene. This leads to either highly abstract works or pieces where discernible landscape structures become apparent, such as a hill, a mountain, a cliff or a grouping of vegetation.
When working intuitively with watercolors, I will begin painting after observing my subject for numerous hours, such as clouds or birds. Then as I work, images simply present themselves. As the story unfolds, I will add and delete pigments at great length to form an image, and adjust my palette instinctively.
My second method involves a great deal of contemplation and planning. It begins with a snapshot of an intimate moment experienced outdoors. A blossom, cloudscape, or waterline is captured as a print, and then key elements are extracted to create the painting. I will play around with the composition, create palette swatches, rough sketches and ultimately transfer the sketch to paper or canvas in preparation to paint.
In both methods, I allow the pigments to mingle or overlap freely, creating their own language of color, and after they dry apply black ink to create further motion in broad undulating strokes, or develop form with extensive stippling. The finished piece suggests the reference material, but rarely resembles it.
The artwork is completed when I feel it reaches the level of visual emotion it needs to tell a story that others can enjoy.
Powered by Artwork Archive