Helen McIldowie-Jenkins is a painter and iconographer, and her work has featured in Full of Grace by Judith Dupre and has a booklet published by Wymondham Abbey on her original Stations of the Cross series.
Helen McIldowie-Jenkins is a professional artist, iconographer and Secular Franciscan (OFS) who has undertaken numerous fine art and icon commissions since the early 1990s (Elenis Icons).
Commissioning bodies include Bristol Cathedral, Chelmsford Cathedral, Wymondham Abbey, The English College Rome, The Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, The Turf Club Pall Mall, St Mary's Harrow on the Hill,
Holy Trinity Cuckfield, All Hallows Gospel Oak, The Oratory of Cardiff University Chaplaincy and several chapels of the Woodard School Corporation. Helen has also produced numerous bespoke commissions for private
clients in the UK, USA and Australia.
Helen has given interviews to BBC radio and talks to conferences and groups. Her research into 13th century crucifixion iconography has also been cited in art historical papers.
Helen only uses the traditional
medieval panel painting techniques of egg tempera and water gilding to compose original devotional art as well as archetypal Byzantine Greek and Russians icons. Her work also references early Franciscan and Italian 14th
century Trecento painting.
Helen also has a passion for Clerical Portraiture and has recently painted His Eminence Cardinal Vincent Nichols and Canon Bruce Ruddock of Chichester Cathedral.
Background:
In addition to a Fine Art diploma (St Alban’s College of Art & Design) and a fellowship to the Digswell Arts Trust (Fine Art & Ceramics) and a teaching qualification, Helen holds a first class BA Honours degree in
Art History and was awarded an MA scholarship by the Edmund J. Safra Foundation to the Courtauld Institute of Art, London to study Late Medieval Italian Painting.
For many years, Helen worked in the London art auction
world in the Russian Icons and Work of Art department at MacDougall Arts and at Christies. Helen has also worked in museum and third sector teaching Late Medieval Italian art history. Helen currently leads several
retreats annually in the UK and Italy through her other business, Icon Adventures.
