Katherine HELMER

1941 - 2020

Studied drawing and painting at the Ontario College of Art and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, graduating from the latter school in 1964. Her work as a painter is in collections in Canada, United States and Great Britain with professional representation first by Nancy Poole Gallery of Toronto and subsequently across Canada by the Loch Galleries. She has as well had an extensive career as an illustrator of primarily poetry and children's books, all the while teaching children's art both at Havergal College and Montcrest schools in Toronto. Since moving to Westwood Ontario (near Peterborough) in 2006, the new surroundings inspired a large series of drawings and paintings of the local landscape. She has worked as a board member and chair of the Asphodel-Norwood Public Library which included the preservation of the building which housed the library, and as well from 1987 with her husband Terrence Helmer, founding member of the renowned Orford String Quartet, on the restoration-renovation of the award winning 1840's Westwood Mill. She is survived by her husband, their children; Tanner, Saskia, families, and by her sister Patricia Welsh and brother the architect Don Bolton. She will be sadly missed by them and all who knew her. There will be a retrospective showing of Katherine's work in the gallery space in the Westwood Mill this spring.