When Helen Joseph moved home in 2019, she left behind a large Johannesburg garden that had long been her place of solace and inspiration. The move to a smaller home meant letting go of that familiar space, a quiet loss that lingered. With only a small patch of soil at her new home, she began again, planting flowers and herbs, coaxing life from the ground as a way of finding her footing in new surroundings.
As the garden took root, Joseph began to notice the small dramas that unfolded each day: a spider spinning its web between blossoms, the fleeting struggle of a trapped fly, the slow unfurling of petals at dawn. What began as simple observation grew into a meditation on life’s fragile balance, the tension between beauty and brutality, creation and decay. Nature, she realised, was offering her stories, played out in miniature and rich with meaning.
Over six years, from 2019 to 2025, Joseph translated these quiet narratives into a body of oil paintings that trace her deepening relationship with the natural world. Stories from My Garden reflects on change, resilience, and renewal, finding poetry in the overlooked details of everyday life. Each canvas becomes both a record of observation and a metaphor for transformation, revealing how even in the smallest spaces, nature continues to mirror our own cycles of loss and regeneration.
Through this intimate series, Joseph reclaims her garden as a site of reflection and belonging, a reminder that beauty endures, even in the wake of change.
-
Helen JosephEchoes of floral form, 2024Oil on canvas150 x 100 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephDesert Bloom, 2025Oil on canvas150 x 100 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephPetal presence, 2023Oil on canvas150 x 100 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephFloral shape and shadow, 2023Oil on canvas80 x 100 x 3 cm -
Helen JosephMoonlight Bloom, 2024Oil on canvas50 x 40 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephFloral Composition, 2023Oil on canvas61 x 51 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephBouquet, 2023Oil on canvas60 x 100 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephLilies afloat, 2024Oil on canvas60 x 80 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephSomnolence, 2024Oil on canvas60 x 76 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephMy Garden, 2023Oil on canvas61 x 91 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephApparition, 2023Oil on canvas51 x 41 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephForm and Shape, 2022Oil on canvas51 x 41 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephAs my garden takes shape, 2023Oil on canvas76 x 101 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephDuo, 2024Oil on canvas80 x 100 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephIris 1, 2025Oil on canvas100 x 60 x 3 cm -
Helen JosephFloral with creepers, 2025Oil on canvas100 x 60 x 3 cm -
Helen JosephFloral Composition, 2025Oil on canvas100 x 60 x 3 cm -
Helen JosephStories Unfold, 2023Oil on canvas121 x 76 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephLook Closely, 2023Oil on canvas101 x 76 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephComposition 2, 2024Oil on canvas100 x 100 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephSpiders in tow, 2023Oil on canvas150 x 100 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephInside Story, 2024Oil on canvas76 x 101 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephEntangled, 2024Oil on canvas100 x 80 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephPurple Strike, 2025Oil on canvas150 x 100 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephGathering, 2023Oil on canvas150 x 100 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephInside the Earth, 2025Oil on canvas150 x 100 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephComposition with Purple, 2024Oil on canvas100 x 80 x 2 cm -
Helen JosephForm, 2022Oil on canvas100 x 150 cm