Biography Helen BARENTON Reims, artist and portraitist
Biography Helen BARENTON artist in France. Incorporated as an artist in Reims since 2019, my journey is quite peculiar. Graduated from Polytechnique, I am working as Data project manager. A highly rational universe has always been my natural habitat, but I’ve consistently felt the need to (re)connect my Cartesian mind with my reptilian brain. While numbers and data are essential to understanding our world, they are nothing without the sensory and holistic dimension that art brings. More simply put, while finance stimulates and sustains me intellectually and financially, I was missing a more philosophical dimension—something that uplifts and nourishes me spiritually.
I am self-taught. My life is a tapestry woven from colors, words, and data—a dance between art, literature, and the world of numbers.
Autodidact artist, novelist, English and drawing teacher in Reims, and Data Project manager in finance in Paris
Philosophy of the artist
Curiosity is often said to be a sin or a flaw. I belong to those who believe, on the contrary, that being born curious is a true gift. I wouldn’t be who I am today without this insatiable appetite, this boundless curiosity for the world around us.
My commitment to art goes far beyond painting..
Artiste peintre portraitiste autodidacte à Reims
From a very young age, I developed a passion for languages, music, drawing, and philosophy.
Also a novelist and an avid reader, I’ve always immersed myself in rich literary worlds, exploring artistic expression through words.
At 16, fascinated by the Surrealist movement, I received the gift that would change my life: a set of oil paints.
It was around that time that I began reading manuals to teach myself the fundamentals of painting—books that sparked the desire to one day make it my profession.
Alongside this, I cultivated a deep love for literature. The beauty of words, the magic in the way they come together… grammar and poetry—so many invitations to the curiosity that drives me.
Like a journey best enjoyed when shared, I quickly felt the need to pass that curiosity on.
Portraitist, from tables to canvases
You’ve probably guessed—it’s not easy to juggle all these passions.
During the week, I navigate complex projects, handling data with precision as a project manager in the finance sector.
On weekends, I swap digital spreadsheets for canvases and orchestrate colors on my palette.
Between the two, I write novels, teach English at the Eductive campus, and give drawing lessons at a community center.
This balance offers me a broad perspective on the world—one that reveals itself in my work through a kind of offbeat realism.
My paintings, hyperrealistic yet tinged with burlesque, allow me to playfully mock humanity and its flaws through the use of anthropomorphism.
Paintings as a vehicle to messages
Very quickly, I realized that art is a powerful means of communication.
My work then began to take on a more engaged dimension.
In 2021, I received the international award “The Big One,” which allowed my paintings to travel abroad — notably to the United States.
Portfolio - International deliveries
My creations and portraits travel all around the world, with paintings displayed in private collections as well as in companies based in Reims and abroad — in Japan, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, England, the United States, and throughout France.
