Helen van Stolk

Helen is a Cape Town-based artist working from Woodlands Hub Art Studios in Woodstock.

Her practice spans abstraction and figuration, exploring the emotional resonance of colour, gesture, and form through oil on canvas. Deeply inspired by nature, sensuality, and lived experience, her work often reflects mood, landscape, and presence, shaped by sketching, travel, plein air painting, and time spent immersed in the natural world.

Helen has presented a series of solo exhibitions across Cape Town and Franschhoek, including Full of Flirt (2023), The Magic & The Mystery (2022), Diving Deep & Flying High (2021), and Bursting Into Life (2019) at AiTY Gallery, alongside exhibitions at The Cape Gallery and Art in the Yard.

Her work has also featured in numerous group exhibitions throughout South Africa, including Candice Berman Gallery, StateoftheART Gallery, and Moki.Store.

Her artistic development has been shaped through workshops and masterclasses with internationally recognised artists including Martin Campos, Melinda Cootsona, and Emily Ball, as well as South African artists Mary Visser and Jenny Parsons. Alongside her studio practice, Helen leads workshops for artists focused on abstraction, intuition, and creative exploration, and has been invited to speak at exhibitions and art societies about her process and approach.

Helen is the recipient of multiple awards from the South African Society of Artists, including the Highest Score Ever Awarded at the 2011 SASA Annual Exhibition and the Elinor Palmer Award in 2015. In 2014, she was awarded a Fellowship with SASA.

Her work is represented by galleries in Cape Town and Johannesburg, including Candice Berman Gallery, Cape Gallery, Hout Bay Gallery, Alive Art, StateoftheART, and Moki.Store. Her paintings form part of private and corporate collections in South Africa, the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Canada, Australia, and Mauritius.

In 2024, Helen completed a five-week residency at Lion Sands Game Reserve in South Africa, with a confirmed residency at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris scheduled for 2026.