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Clinton Helms
ARTIST BIO
Clinton Helms was born in southern Virginia in 1959. From early childhood and throughout his middle and high school years, drawing and painting became a natural talent for him guiding him on a journey to pursue art as a future dream career. Clinton is an African American Contemporary artist/illustrator and designer whom work has appeared in both group and solo exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad in the UK. Clinton studied art off and on for about fifteen years before graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in 1999 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree. In 2001, he retired from the United States Army Reserves and transitioned to the Retired Reserves with over twenty-one years of service to the country to pursue his childhood dream full-time. In 2007 he graduated from Marywood University, “Get Your Masters with the Masters Program” earning his M.F.A. degree in Illustration and Fine Arts. He is a member of the Colonial Beach Artist Guild, the United States Air Force Arts Program, and the Virginia Plain Air Painters Group. Clinton currently teaches Intro to Drawing and an occasional Studio Drawing course as an Adjunct Instructor in the Arts Foundations Program at Virginia Commonwealth University in the School of Arts.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My motivation, inspiration, and vision for drawing and painting come from a long list of visual resources. Artworks from the family bible, the Renaissance period, and artists from the Golden Age of Illustration are my favored sources of inspiration. When I’m making a painting, I usually start with good drawing paying close attention to the composition, design and perspective shapes. I use a bright color palette which allows light to flow naturally from painting to painting in an attempt to capture energy, movement, and life in the painting that magically captures’ the viewers' attention and sends their imagination on a journey of SEEING the beauty of this world through my eyes.
Clinton Helms
Goochland, VA, USA
