Grace Helmer’s brilliant paintings of modern details and everyday life

Since her commendation as one of our 2012 Graduates, illustrator Grace Helmer’s oil paintings have got brighter and more exacting. Snowy landscapes, spring gardens, seed banks, thermal spas and a great comic about the trials and tribulations of life as a freelancer make up her portfolio which balances skill and humour brilliantly.

The comic, on “death and dating and drawing” conveys the difficulty of self-motivation (particularly when the sun is shining), the joy of having Skype meetings in your pants and the idiosyncrasies of family life. The inner and spoken dialogue is at just the right level between dry and dramatic, on a backdrop of paintings packed with the modern details of everyday life. As well as her comics and collaborations as part of Day Job Studio, Grace has been commissioned by Apple, HarvardX, Another Escape and Google among many others.