Tyga Helme: Beauty of the mark

Livvy Kemp pointed me in the direction of the work of Tyga Helme. Her interest in subject matter is similar to mind and it seems we have a very similar way of viewing the world in the terms of mark. My goodness this woman is good though, how she combines media to create these striking landscapes is hauntingly beautiful. Mark making for me is about conveying feeling through repetition, she does this so well and her work is so so emotive. This is such a skill because she gives the work substance and depth just by the build up of mark.

She has a huge variety of visual language and her use of line motivates me to really push myself in this area. Her ink drawings appeal to me the most because of the fluidity of line and how it captures organic matter.

She breaks up the composition well and the sense of fragmentation gives the work movement and really makes the viewer engage with the piece. She also works with building up the scene on different sections of paper, again adding to this sense of fragmentation which I really like. I think this has encouraged me to consider working bigger and outside my sketchbook.

Tyra studied at the Edinburgh College of art and also creates a variety of work in different media. This includes printmaking, painting and drawing. She is someone who has a real talent for depicting the outside world through mark. I really look forward to seeing what she creates in the future and seeing how her practice develops.

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