Art Gallery of Newfoundland and
Labrador (AGNL)
Shaped by the Sea
Permanent Collections
Helen Parsons Shepherd is one of the best-known and respected artists in Newfoundland. Her stunningly realistic formal portraits and her colourful still lifes are among this province's most important artworks.
Born in St. John's in 1923, Parsons Shepherd came from an artistic family. Her father was poet R.A. Parsons, and her brother Paul is a well-known watercolour artist. From an early age, the Parsons children were exposed to books about and prints of visual art. As a young girl, Parsons Shepherd would sit and sketch visitors to her home.
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Bus Stop (NFLD Spring) 1965 Oil on Canvas 85.5 x 106.5 cm 
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While Parsons Shepherd always enjoyed art, after graduating from high school she was undecided about a career. She spent one year at Memorial University of Newfoundland, four months attending a nursing school in Montréal, and a full year clerking for her father's law office before deciding to pursue an art degree at the Ontario College of Art (OCA). She was, in fact, the first Newfoundlander to graduate from OCA, in 1948.
While attending OCA, she met fellow student and Newfoundlander Reginald Shepherd. The couple married in 1948, and when Reginald graduated in 1949, they returned to St John's to become the co-founders and instructors of the Newfoundland Academy of Art (NAA), the first art school in Newfoundland.
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Microscopes of Yester Year 1972 Oil on Masonite 51 x 75.5 cm
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From 1949-61, Parsons Shepherd taught art. She taught at the NAA, as well as giving classes to the members of four convents in St John's. During this time, she continued with her own work, mostly commissioned portraits, and in 1951, she had a son, Scott. For four months in 1957 she joined her husband in Europe, who was studying art there for a year.
In 1961, the Shepherds decided to close the NAA in order to spend more time working on their own art. Parsons Shepherd concentrated on keeping up with her commissioned portraits, which were booked up to two years in advance. Her portraits were so highly regarded, she was commissioned to paint innumerable public officials and prominent members of the community, as well as series of the mayors of St. John's and the presidents of Memorial University. She was also commissioned to do a portrait of His Royal Highness, Prince Phillip.
Parsons Shepherd has received several honours. She was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Art in 1978 and received an honorary doctorate from Memorial University in 1988.
Parsons Shepherd has continued to pursue her own artwork and commissioned portraits full-time in St. John's during the winter, and in Clarke's Beach in the summer.
