Helen Ness (b. 1927)

Helen Louise Ness, née Cater, WAA president from 1978 though 1980. Ms. Ness was born in Galt (now Cambridge) in 1931. She was raised in Dundas and attended Westdale Secondary School where she studied art under Ida Hamilton. Miss Hamilton encouraged Helen to continue her art studies at the Ontario College of Art. After being graduated from OCA, Ms. Ness found a job in advertising. This lasted until she married in her mid-twenties and put her career, and art, on hold while she raised a family of three children. After divorcing in 1971, Helen returned to Dundas and resumed painting and etching. Never one to do things by half-measures, Ms. Ness plunged into the art-world taking courses at the Dundas Valley School of Art and joining local art groups. At the time, Helen had two friends who were members of the WAA and who spoke to her excitedly about the WAA demonstration meetings, and their joy at having their work accepted in the annual juried WAA exhibitions. "So I joined the WAA and made many friends," recalled Ms. Ness. "I am still in contact with many of them even though I haven't lived in the area for a number of years. I consider Margaret Clark, Myrna Putns, Eleanor Johnson and Mary Toplack still good and faithful friends. I learned the politics of juried shows; I enjoyed most of the demonstrations at WAA meetings; and, I loved the thrill of having my work shown and sold to the public. As the overall calibre of work in the WAA shows got better, I got a feeling of satisfaction that maybe I, during my presidency, played a small part in helping that to happen." Before moving to Port Dover, Ontario, Helen taught adult art classes over a period of years for the Board of Education in Ancaster and Hamilton. She has also held art classes at the Royal Botanical Gardens and has conducted workshops in Hamilton-Wentworth and elsewhere in Southern Ontario. She has served on the Boards of the Hamilton and Region Arts Council and the Carnegie Gallery in Dundas.

For a number of years Helen Ness has been a full-time professional artist. "You treat it like a regular job – approximately eight hours a day...every day."⁶⁴ If she doesn't feel like painting, she frames what she has done. "People say that art is romantic," Ms. Ness said, "but three-quarters of it is just plain hard work – and I'm a hard worker."⁶⁵ Still, there is that other 25%: the creative, emotional, spiritual part. Helen Ness' work displays that 25% beautifully, so, too, do her words: "To show your work in public is to stand naked in front of the world. To produce something that you care about and to have it rejected by a jury is to die a little."⁶⁶ That sensitivity is beautifully evident in Helen's work whether it be on a large canvas, or in a miniature etching. Since moving from Hamilton, Helen Ness has returned to the city many times, and has exhibited every five years for the last fifteen with WAA artists Myrna Putns and Margaret Clark

Source: “Women’s Art Association of Hamilton: The First Years” by Stuart MacCuaig:

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Helen L. Ness, born 1927, is a painter and a printmaker originally from Dundas Ontario, Canada. She graduated from the Ontario College of Art, Toronto in Advertising Art and pursued a career as a commercial artist. She took further courses at the Dundas Valley School of Art. She works in various mediums but etchings are her "first love" and miniatures her specialty. She eventually locates to Port Dover to set up Studio and expand into watercolours. After this relocation little information is known. Due to being a prolific engraver and painter, many of Ness’ artworks have resurfaced in the second market and various local collections.

Source: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/155370102756