Helen Andersen

• Name — Helen Andersen • Birth Name — Helen Severson McKay Anderson • Born — 14 July 1919 • Birthplace — North Battleford, Saskatchewan, Canada • Died — 23 December 1995 • Place of death — Saanich, British Columbia, Canada • Occupation — Artist

Born Helen Severson McKay Anderson in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, Canada, she began painting in her teens, with some instruction from her physician father Dr. William Edmund Anderson, himself a "capable artist". Like her father, Andersen chose medicine as her profession, graduating as a Registered Nurse in 1940 from the Regina General Hospital School of Nursing. While working as a nurse she took art classes in her free time at the Vancouver School of Art, the University of British Columbia and the Victoria College of Art. She was eventually able to devote herself to her craft full time after receiving a grant from the Community Arts Council (Victoria, British Columbia). Her teachers included artists Bob Davidson, John Koerner, Joseph Plaskett, Kit Thorne, and Jacques de Tonnancour. She counted Bill Reid and Jack Shadbolt and Max Maynard among her artist friends. As an artist, Andersen was mainly active in exhibitions in Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia. However, she also had solo exhibitions on the international stage in Denmark, Iran, and Tanzania. She was a peace activist during much of her life. Her large painting, Nuclear Mother, recorded her horror of nuclear weapons, and earned her a special commendation from the mayor of Hiroshima. Painted in an art brut style, the work depicts a grieving mother holding her slain infant. Some of her works are a part of the permanent collections of the Sidney-North Saanich Library; Saanich Peninsula Hospital and the Ocean Sciences buildings. Andersen died from cancer in Saanich, British Columbia, on 23 December 1995.