helenrosemont.art

The desert 🐪 🇲🇦

Finally a chance to exhale. Summer holidays means more time for painting🌿

Scene from the wildlife reserve in Sevenoaks. The most serene place to recharge after a busy week. I guess as one ages, bird watching becomes an interesting weekend pastime 👵🏻

This is my first painting in three months. I started working again and somehow landed a dream role after a six year hiatus from the professional world. So life is very much work and kids at the moment!

During the most stringent lockdowns in the UK, I craved my daily painting as an escape from homeschooling / making 127472 meals a day / the general unease of living during a pandemic. But now life is almost back to normal and our daily rhythms of life have picked back up again. Time for creativity is scarce, but two years into these ‘unprecedented times’ we have all finally succumbed to covid. So, quarantined in the house for at least a week and the paints are back out as I escape my children, who are, literally, always hungry and needing a snack and bored.

Here is something I’m working on and an opportunity to work on faces, which I generally avoid painting 🥴…a very happy moment between little friends at the beach 💙

A winter still life 🍂

I haven’t painted in ages. Life has been busy and my free time is spent working on our house that needs a lot of TLC - decorating, hanging pictures, sewing curtains and cushions!

Here’s a pretty wintry painting I did for a friend of her beautiful home in the English countryside. It doesn’t snow very much in the park of the UK where I live, but I still hold out hope every winter!

Some flower studies at the kitchen table, with the one paint brush I could find. I seem to have lost all my brushes. Something to sort out in the New Year 🤷🏼‍♀️

💫My last plug for my little art biz this year. All my ornaments have sold (thank you!) and I’m a bit painted-out! But one last thing I’ve been working on is finally ready…

💌 I’ve created five sets of painted cards, with five cards in each set, which are now for sale on my website. Every one is an original. A bit better than a supermarket-bought birthday card or thank you note, I think 😉

🎄Thanksgiving is past us now and I’m happily in Christmas mode. Despite being an American abroad for most of my adult life, this is still my rubric for when Christmas can begin 😉

I treated myself to a gorgeous wreath from and added some velvet ribbon (mostly to keep it on the door!l, but it looks nice too). The tree is decorated and I’m settling into that contemplative frame of mind as we enter this holy season.

I know a lot of people dislike the commercialization of Christmas and the emphasis on gift giving, but I love the giving element (see the last slide 😅) Especially as this is really the only time of year I do it for everyone I love, and let’s not forget the giving of gifts by the magi of the Parthian Empire to the newborn Jesus. This year I’ll be giving a mixture of things I’ve made and things I’ve bought. What about you? I have some really special paintings still for sale that would love a home if you are searching for something unique! And thank you deeply from everyone who has supported my art this year already.🎄

I really, really love decorative arts. I think it’s a bit trendy at the moment and perhaps the huge popularity we’re seeing now will fade away in time, but I’m here for it while it lasts!

I’d happily keep these for myself - I imagine a beautifully dressed dining table for a weekend lunch with friends. Or perhaps in a bathroom on top of luxury soaps, next to a porcelain bowl of shells collected at the beach. Or on a bookshelf, interspersed with antique books and glass paperweights. 🤷🏼‍♀️ I’m a maximalist, what can I say?

Now on my website if you are wanting something unique for someone special 🤗

This time of year I listen to music by Ensemble Galilei and Maggie Sansone non-stop. It’s the perfect soundtrack on those misty, chilly mornings, when the land around us goes to sleep and winter is ushered in. I’m not putting our tree up yet, but I’m getting myself in the right frame of heart and mind for the Christmas season ahead.

I was inspired to paint this image - possibly for our Christmas card?! - of a midnight desert caravan, in search of the mysterious and miraculous 🐪

Weems creek ⛵️

I went back to America last week, and visited my childhood home. I grew up on Weems Creek, off the Severn River, and Chesapeake Bay further afield. It’s where my love of the water began! I’m a bad swimmer and an average sailor, but I love being next to open water and the smell of salty sea air!

It was wonderful to go back in time a bit, and stand on the dock where I spent summers swimming and boating.

Here is my little ode to that special place ✨

🎄🌟FOR SALE🌟🎄

1 - Poinsettas
2 - Snowdrops
3 - Mistletoe
4 - Winter Greens
5 - Holly

Here is my first batch of ornaments for sale! If you’d like to purchase one, they are £12 each. Please DM me for purchase details. 🤗

(Sadly I’m only able to ship these within the UK, but keep an eye on my website for other lovely pieces for sale that I can more easily send abroad!

A little hand painted card 🌺

Seven ornaments in the end….if I have time I’ll do more! It was so fun doing these but VERY time consuming. Can’t wait to see them hanging on trees soon! 🎄

✨Tomorrow my family and I head to America to finally say goodbye to my mother. Covid + my brother’s deployment with the navy has meant we haven’t been able to hold her funeral until now.

There is SO much I miss about her - everything really - but selfishly she was my biggest fan! She loved my art and proudly displayed it all over her home. Even really rubbish pieces from my college days 😏Three weeks before she passed she picked out a small watercolor of mine to have by her bed. My last gift to her.

This was an oil painting I did about 7 years ago that she particularly loved. Blue was her color and she loved the ocean. One day this will return to me, but I’m happy for it to continue living in her house. Right where she hung it and in the frame she chose. ✨

This was fun, but I think I’ll stick to my day job. 😅

Another commission, this of a beautiful, vibrant wedding bouquet! Thank you for asking me Helen, it was a joy to paint. 💐

And back to non-Christmas things! It is looking so autumnal and lovely where we are right now. I’m so inspired by nature’s jewel tones this time of year. 🍁

✨Sneak peek! ✨Working on some exciting things for Christmas. This year I plan to offer some handpainted decorative pieces for the holidays, and beyond! On offer in the shop in November 🤩

Ps. The blue wall is back. Couldn’t live in a house without one 😉

Mid-morning shadows on a rose. I saw this beauty outside Tonbridge Castle the other day.🌹

Created this in the semi-dark (note to self: get more lamps for new house) while listening to a true crime podcast. Decent evening, but I don’t recommend trying to figure out paint colours with the lights off! ✨🌙

Can anyone recognise this place?

Last painting with these blue walls as my backdrop 💙

Not a lot of painting right now as we are moving house and I’ve decided to pack everything myself 😖 But this afternoon I ignored the boxes (and my kids 😏) and painted a favourite scene from Hastings Beach.

Wacky and abstract and colourful. Perhaps how I’d also describe myself!

Her holy place ✨

This is a painting I did of my mother at the beach, based on a photo I took of her about 10 years ago. She loved the beach, the ocean, the sun. I was her little vampire child who burned easily and overheated too quickly. 🥵 That’s why British beaches suit me so well - it’s usually cloudy and raining! However we’ve had the most glorious weather here in West Dorset and I am returning home with heaps of inspiration.

Farewell half-term, you’ve been marvelous!

Garden cuttings 🌿

These beauties were for sale at our favourite farm shop. Instead of bouquets they just had an assortment of cuttings from the garden in lovely glass vases. The simplicity of spring, and a reminder that everything we do in life, and with our art, doesn’t have to be complex and bold to be beautiful.

An ode to the Magnolia tree in our garden (well, it’s in the neighbor’s but we get the glory of it!) 🌸

Almost finished with my government-mandated quarantine after my trip to America. Can’t wait to reopen the shop, and get started on new pieces! 🎨

I’ve been absolutely knackered since getting back (international travel during covid isn’t the most relaxing activity and wearing a face mask for 15+ hours seemed to take it out of me😷) I’ve listened to my brain and body telling me to rest, and I’m soaking up all the extra cuddles with my babies, who stayed behind while I spent precious time with my mom. But I’m itching to get back to my brushes and paints!