Congratulations to Open Studio student Rizwan Pradhan, winner of this year’s Open Studio / Helen Wilson Prize, for his portrait of Chris.
The Open Studio Prize is given in memory of Helen Wilson, artist and Director of Studies at Heatherleys in the early 1970s.
Helen Wilson was Director of Studies at Heatherleys during its time in Hampstead in the early 70s. She was instrumental in getting the Heatherley School of Art its charitable status in 1971. After the schools decline, from 1946 to its closure in 1969, Helen founded and ran the Heatherley-Wilson School of Arts and Crafts from 1969 – 1974.
Wilson began her artistic career as a medical artist studying the human body and making detailed anatomical drawings. She had a studio in Fellows Road in Swiss Cottage. As well as teaching at the Heatherley School of Fine Art she was Vice President of the Pastel Society. Noted for her pastel portraiture, she also produced some highly regarded still life paintings and landscapes.
