About

Helen Thomas is a Yorkshire based visual artist who works in response to plants in the environment. Helen pays particular attention to uncultivated plants in urban spaces. She makes notes, sketches, and takes photos on path edges, development sites, and in corners of car parks. These ‘noticings’, as Helen describes them, inform the paintings that she makes in her studio at The Art House in Wakefield https://the-arthouse.org.uk/about/meet-our-studio-holders/.

Helen is AA2A Resident Artist at Leeds Beckett University 2025 – 2026.

Helen was long listed for the Contemporary British painting prize in 2024 and 2026.

Manchester Art Gallery acquired Helen’s painting ‘Common Whitlowgrass, Close In, Smyth Street’ in 2025, through the generosity of The Manchester Contemporary Art Fund. https://manchesterartgallery.org/new-acquisitions-at-manchester-art-gallery/

Solo exhibitions: No patch of green too small presented by Huddersfield Art Gallery at University of Huddersfield, 2025; Habitat Mura Ma, Stockport, 2024; Dandelions and Double Yellows, Wakefield Cathedral, 2021.

Selected group exhibitions: There is room in the Bag of Stars, Terrace Gallery London, 2026; The Irving Open, Oxford, 2026; The Pearls, The Manchester Contemporary, 2025; Nature Sensory, The Art House with tour to University of Leeds, 2025; Planting Ideas, St Barbe Museum, Hampshire, 2024; Entwined: Plants in Contemporary Painting, Huddersfield Art Gallery 2022 with tour to 20-21 Visual Arts, Scunthorpe, 2023; Rogue Women 2, Manchester, 2023; Conversations with Nature, The Art House, 2022; Xylem and Phloem, Bloc Projects, Sheffield, 2021; Jerwood Drawing Prize, London and UK tour, 2016.

Helen also works collaboratively and devises and delivers workshops and educational projects. she has worked with organisations and groups including The Hepworth Wakefield, The Art House, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and Heritage Action Zone Wakefield. In 2022 The Hepworth Wakefield commissioned Helen to work with a group of young people to co-create visuals for ‘What does Wakefield Sound Like?’ with musicians Duncan Chapman and Supriya Nagarajan from Manasimitra.

Helen completed a B.A in Fine Art at Falmouth School of Art and a year of postgraduate study with Turps Art School.

If you would like to discuss collaborative projects, exhibitions or enquire about any of the paintings please get in touch.