Shyama Helin

I am both a painter and a scratchboard artist whose work explores our spiritual and emotional connection to the natural world. Blending figurative and abstract elements, I create richly textured surfaces using a variety of materials and techniques—including heavy gesso, crackle mediums, palette knives, steel wool, needle tools, and colored inks. The resulting layers and organic textures speak to both the resilience and fragility of nature. Raised in one of the oldest communes on the West Coast, my connection to the natural world began early. My childhood home was a cabin in the woods without electricity or a telephone, where I spent countless hours sketching beneath the forest canopy, alone with my imagination. That sense of wonder continues to shape my work, inviting viewers to pause, reflect, and rediscover their own connection to the living world.