Helen Clapcott b 1952

Born in Blackpool in 1952, Helen Clapcott moved to Stockport with her family when she was 10 and her first glimpses of the Mersey Valley were love at first sight. It is a subject which has dominated her work ever since. For 40 years she has produced a series of subtle, haunting paintings of by-gone Stockport. She studied Fine Art at Liverpool Art College and The Royal Academy Schools and is one of a very few modern artists working in tempera - egg-based emulsion painted on small to medium sized panels prepared with gesso, a smooth surface like plaster of Paris. This technique, favoured by centuries of artists from ancient times until the 15th century, means she can erase scenes and re-work them in the cause of perfection. She made her first tempera painting of Stockport in 1974.

Every painting starts off with meticulous drawings in her sketchbook and she is still painting from scenes originally drawn in the 1980's when many iconic Stockport buildings began to be demolished. Her paintings capture now-disappeared iconic landmarks and take many months to complete due her meticulous attention to detail. She is now represented by a major London Gallery and Stockport Art Gallery have recently bought several of her paintings.

Solo Exhibitions:
Wendy J Levy Gallery, Manchester 2013
Osborne Samuel, London 2013
Portico Gallery, Manchester 2010
Stockport Art Gallery 1984, 1998, 2008
Troubador Gallery 2006
Scolar Fine Art, London 2003
The New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham 1986, 1990, 1994
Salford City Art Gallery 1984

Collaborative Exhibitions:
Messum's Gallery, London 'The Elemental North' 2014
Browse and Darby. 'A Critics Choice' 2012
Touchstones, Rochdale (travelling to Oldham and Stockport). 'Millscapes' 2007-2008
Burlington Fine Art, London. 'Light' 2005
RASA (Royal Academy Schools Alumni) 'A Brush with Words' 2005
Regularly at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions, London