Welcome
I’m so glad you’ve found your way here. I’m Helen Otway, an artist based in Australia. My work draws inspiration from the rhythms of nature — the shifting light, quiet coastlines, and the traces of human presence within the landscape.
Here you can explore my latest paintings and textile works, discover what’s currently on exhibition, and find out where my art is available — both through galleries and directly from my studio.
You can view selected artworks via the drop down menu to reveal each series:If These Walls Could Talk, Silva Luna, Forest Glow, Tidal Shift, Sacred Rocks, Minis & Postcard Paintings, Tweed Valley Series. And you can learn more about my work at Byron School of Art 2024-2026 including available works.
Helen xx
Here you can explore my latest paintings and textile works, discover what’s currently on exhibition, and find out where my art is available — both through galleries and directly from my studio.
You can view selected artworks via the drop down menu to reveal each series:If These Walls Could Talk, Silva Luna, Forest Glow, Tidal Shift, Sacred Rocks, Minis & Postcard Paintings, Tweed Valley Series. And you can learn more about my work at Byron School of Art 2024-2026 including available works.
Helen xx
WHAT'S ON NOW...
Places We Inhabit - Empire Revival, Murwillumbah
Places We Inhabit - Empire Revival, Murwillumbah
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We move through landscapes every day — forests, rivers, shorelines, streets — often without noticing how deeply they are noticing us.
The places we inhabit shape the way we breathe, the way we pause, the way we hold ourselves in the world. Over time, they become part of our inner weather: a remembered light, a familiar horizon, the hush of water at the edge of thought. This body of work moves between forest glow, tidal shift, sacred stone and rivered land. These are not depictions of place as scenery, but quiet encounters with presence — moments where land and water become mirrors for feeling, memory, and states of being. Each painting holds a question rather than an answer: What does this place ask of you? What does it offer? You are invited to wander slowly through these works, to linger, to let the surfaces and rhythms speak to something beneath language. Perhaps you will recognise a landscape you’ve known. Perhaps you will feel the echo of a place you carry but cannot name. “We do not only inhabit places; places inhabit us.” — (adapted from Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space) Places We Inhabit is an invitation to step inside these painted environments, and to notice — gently, without urgency — the subtle ways place shapes who we are, and who we are becoming. |
Silva Luna - Greenhouse Interiors - online and in gallery
Silva Luna series available through Greenhouse Interiors and Empire Revival
On show with Greenhouse Interiors. You can shop online at greenhouseinteriors.com.au/collections/helen-otway-artworks
You can read more about these works and find more pieces from this series at Silva Luna
You can read more about these works and find more pieces from this series at Silva Luna
COMING UP...
Trackways Small Worlds Sculpture Prize Exhibition 20 June - 4 July
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HELD IN CURRENT
Helen Otway Ceramic 50cm diameter Small Worlds Sculpture Prize Exhibition 20 June - 4 July 2026 Exhibition opening and prize announcements at M|Arts Precinct 6pm, Friday 19 June 2026 LAVA Arts Festival Friday 26 - Sunday 28 June Exhibition close and People’s Choice Award notified 4 July 2026 |
Artist Residency - Tweed Regional Gallery - 4 - 25 August 2026
RECENT EVENTS...
Nimbin Art Fair
Quiet Reserve and Soar available at the Nimbin Art Fair
Nimbin Art Fair
4th -19th April 2026
47 Cullen Street, Nimbin
NSW 2480, Australia
The Nimbin Art Fair is on each year celebrating regional art and artists.
I have seven small pieces in the show, each framed in oak and ready to hang.
Email me for a catalogue and price list.
[email protected]
Places to stay:
Mist Retreat Nimbin
https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/9700394
4th -19th April 2026
47 Cullen Street, Nimbin
NSW 2480, Australia
The Nimbin Art Fair is on each year celebrating regional art and artists.
I have seven small pieces in the show, each framed in oak and ready to hang.
Email me for a catalogue and price list.
[email protected]
Places to stay:
Mist Retreat Nimbin
https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/9700394
Prelude - Australian Galleries - March 31 - April 18 2026
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HELEN OTWAY / Olley's Corner / Olley's Chair /
Oil on board / Oak frame / 28x28cm / SOLD
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Portraits Group Exhibition - Station Street Co-Op
Still, I Gaze - A self-portrait, a quiet act of contemplation. A moment where the self is neither performing nor retreating, but simply being. The face, not an idealized image, but a site of lived experience — vulnerable, thoughtful and unguarded. This small painting sits within my wider practice, where stillness, memory and emotional interiority are used to soften the noise of the world.
Original artwork by series ...
You can view selected works by series. To enquire about any of the artwork, just send through an email at [email protected] . Please note that some works are exclusive to galleries.