Born Carmarthenshire 1954 

Foundation Course Carmarthen School of Art 1972 – 73 

Studied sculpture at Wimbledon School of Art 1973 - 76 

Has worked as a full-time sculptor since 1988 

Exhibits widely in England and Wales including annually at the Chelsea Flower Show and has work in private collections on five continents. 

Public commissions include: 

‘The Mother and the Child’ – All Saints Church, Fulham 

‘Doo Wah Diddy’ -  Royal Free Hospital, London 

‘Crucifix’  -  Brecon Cathedral  

‘Four Seasons’  -  Marie Curie Hospice, West Midlands 

‘Life’s Journey’  -  Marymount Hospital, Cork 

Lives and works on the Gower Peninsula with her painter/sculptor husband Terry Ryall. 

Helen is currently President of the Society of Women Artists. 

Artist’s statement

I have been making sculpture for over thirty years and the practice is still a delight to me.  With every piece I make, I find the working process both comfortingly familiar and refreshingly surprising. Although not the only subject I work from, the human form is the one I keep coming back to, however loosely at times. 

Most of my work is cast in limited editions and I model the originals in mixed media (plaster, clay, wax, cardboard, paper, resin, wood).   

The materials I work with are as stimulating to me as the subject matter.  I live by the sea and collect driftwood, discarded plastic debris and other beach-found ‘stuff’ all of which regularly introduce new and unexpected vocabulary with which to work. 

With the help of a full-time technician, I do my own mould-making and resin casting.  My bronzes have been cast in Pembrokeshire for thirty years.