All relative for Helen

PICTURE PERFECT . . . Helen Slater shows off one of her works.

LOCAL artist Helen Slater is keeping it in the family for her latest exhibition, displaying work by her father, brother and sisters-in-law as well as her own at Saddleworth Museum and Gallery.

The Grotton-based artist, whose father and father-in-law became friends after meeting on an art course run by L S Lowry in the mid-1950s.

Following in her father’s footsteps, Helen became inspired to paint, and like a story from a romantic novel, followed her now-husband David Slater to Nepal where the couple not only fell in love but furthered their passion for art.

Helen said: “I had only known him for two weeks but I went with him.

“Some of the sketchbooks I kept have influenced work for this exhibition.”

The artist, well known in Saddleworth for running her weekly beginners’ classes and art workshops in schools, says her passion for art developed at an early age.

She said: “I always remember finding a dead mouse when I was about three, and the first thing my father did was put it on the mantelpiece and draw it — I ran off crying but that is how he was.

“I’ll be really sad to take the exhibit down. Even though our work is in very different styles we are all inspired by nature and our environments.”

The exhibition, entitled “relativity”,continues until April 25.