Artist's Biography

 

Born in 1952, Helen Mirkil is a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) Certificate and MFA programs, as well as the BFA program of the University of  Pennsylvania (with studio classes at PAFA).

 

She was a recipient of the British American Travel Grant and Philadelphia Wales Exchange. Her Penllyn Series landscapes were exhibited at Walter Wickiser Gallery in NYC. Landscape painting also earned her the Valerie Lamb Smith Painting Residency, as well as two years winning first prize in the Scenes of the Schuylkill Exhibition.

 

The figurative “Conversations” series was shown in a traveling solo exhibition at the Berman Museum of Art and the University of Mary Washington Galleries.  Works in oil and on paper have been shown in the National Midyear Exhibition at The Butler Institute of American Art.

 

Mirkil’s work can be seen at American Academy of Arts and Letters in NYC, Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art, Bryn Mawr College Library Collection, James A. Michener Art Museum, Villanova University Art Collection, University of Mary Washington Galleries, Monmouth Comprehensive School in Wales, U.K., Teaching Collection of PAFA, and Woodmere Art Museum.

 

Helen Mirkil is also a poet. Her collection of poems entitled Sower on the Cliffs: poems and drawings was published in 2013 by BookArts Press.

​

Helen’s new home is in Wilmington, North Carolina. Along with a spacious studio across town, she is setting down roots, enjoying her children and grandchildren.