Helen Stewart was born in Wellington in 1900. The artist has works held in collections in Australia, and New Zealand, including Victoria University, Museum of New Zealand: Te Papa Tongarewa, and the Dowse Art Museum. A contemporary of Dorothy Kate Richmond, Frances Hodgkins and Gwen Knight, Stewart was included with these women in Anne Kircher;s publication 'New Zealand Women Artists: a Survery of 150 Years' (1986).

Stewart studied in a numnber of important centres throughout her life, including London, the Sydney Art School Australia with Thea Proctor, and in Paris at Colarossi's, La Grande Chaumiere and at Andre L'hote's Atelier. The 1930s saw a change in Stewart's work which she felt was an important time for the development of her practise. As a member of the avante-garde Contemporary Art Group, her Modernist paintings were exhibited with many well known Australian artists such as Margaret Preston and Grace Cossington-Smith.

In 1946 Stewart returned to New Zealand, moving to Lowry Bay, Wellington. It was here that she became of member of the 'Thursday Group', which exhibited at the Helen Hitchings Gallery in 1949. She continued to paint unitl her death in 1983.