Area’s beauty rediscovered after time away

To truly appreciate the beauty of the Mid West, artist Helen Ansell had to leave.

After studying at a boarding school in Perth, Ansell relocated to Scotland, living there for four years.

When she moved to Geraldton in 2006 to help her mum with a business venture, Ansell rediscovered the allure of the region.

“Living overseas makes you appreciate your own backyard,” she said.

“When you grow up with some- thing, you really take it for granted.

“I came back here and was so amazed by how wild and amazing and dramatic our flowers are.”

Ansell has become somewhat of an advocate for the region, her stylised and contemporary paintings of wildflowers and landscapes promoting the Mid West to people around the world.

The mother-of-two, who is expecting her third child this month, recently had the chance to showcase her work at Kings Park when she was invited to be the botanic park’s featured artist.

For nine days in September and October, Ansell painted live at Aspects for the 53rd Kings Park Festival, the park bursting with colour during the dazzling wildflower season.

The festival sees more than half a million people visit the park, an opportunity Ansell couldn’t pass up.

“I’ve been really promoting the fact I’m from regional WA and that we have some of the best wildflowers that grow naturally,” she said.

“I deliberately did paintings like the wreath flowers and the everlastings from our region because I thought this was a really great chance to promote Geraldton.”

Although she’s always had a passion for painting, it was never Ansell’s dream to exhibit her artwork.

“I never studied art, but I’ve always had a house full of paintings for fun,” she said.

“One day a friend said to me ‘you should have an exhibition’ and everything sold on the opening night. That was really encouraging and from there I started taking it a bit more seriously and I haven’t looked back.”

While balancing being a mum and painting, Ansell also runs Mulla Mulla Designs with fellow artist Peta Riley.

Although Ansell admits there’s a lot of mess involved with being a painter and having two children under four, she said she tried to involve them in what she was doing.

“I’ve always taken my kids along to everything I do,” she said.

“My four-year-old once said ‘Mummy, I want to be an artist and do designs for Mulla Mulla when I grow up.’ I thought that was pretty cute.”

See Tuesday’s print edition for more artists of the week.