Helen Anikst was born in Moscow in 1946. At the age of nine, while living in Peking, where her parents were influence the on assignment as hydrageologists, she revealed the influence that Chinese art and philosophy had on her expanding aesthetic vision by sculpting, out of sand, an image of Buddha that Chinese friends honored as being worthy of the ancient masters.

In the tiny remote village in the Ural Mountains, to which her family returned, a summer’s study in botanical drawing produced a portfolio of sketches that eventually served as her passport into the art school at the prestigious Surikov Institute.

By 1964, after studying every aspect of and fine arts, Helen found that her artistic focus had broadened. She was awed by the beautiful sights, sounds, words, and movements which whirled around her and she felt a need to control and reproduce every aspect of this beauty. At that same time, she fell under the spell of Hollywood. American classics like “Sunset Boulevard” and “Twelve Angry Men” dictated the fashion of her circle of young Russian artists. She entered the art program at the Moscow Cinematography Institute, knowing that the blending in of sound, movement, and script would give her the complete creative control for which she yearned.

In 1968, while still studying, Helen married Mikhail Anikst, an architect and artist, with whom she worked in designing the stage set for Moliere’s “Tartuffe” in a Moscow Theater.

After receiving her degree in 1970, Helen signed on at the Gorky Cinema Studios where she worked on many famous films, including the celebrated “Fyodor Shalyapin.”

Two years later, with the birth of her son, Anton, Helen’s artistic vision went through a significant metamorphosis. “So much life force, spirit, and beauty were contained within the small package that was my son. This tiny work of art which kept me at home, taught me to see the powerful spirit in other small things. Today I can look on top of my kitchen table and find on it as much beauty and potential as in a script.”

Though her son grew up and eventually left home, Helen held on to the art that she discovered as a mother. She studied the technique of miniature painting between 1974 and 1985, then went on to teach painting to children and work as an illustrator in various Moscow publishing houses.

Recently, since she and her husband have been living in London, Helen has devoted herself to the genres of landscapes and still lifes. She feels that both are ideal in that they bring together, without discrimination, people from every land and time. The culture of the table and land that sustains it has been and should be admired for ages, she believes.