Over her long career, Helen Parsons Shepherd has worked primarily in oil, though her serigraphs and drawings have also drawn praise. Portraiture is her specialty, along with still life, nature study, and landscape. Her works are in many private and public collections, including those of The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery in St. John's, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, NB, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Power Corporation, Montreal.

Born in St. John's in 1923 into a literary and artistic family, she earned her a degree from the Ontario College of Art in 1948—the first Newfoundlander to do so. She married fellow art student Reginald Shepherd (1924-2002) the same year. In 1949, having moved back to St. John's, the couple founded the Newfoundland Academy of Art, where Parsons Shepherd taught until it closed in 1961.

Helen Parsons Shepherd was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Art in 1978, and in 1988 received an honorary doctorate from Memorial University. She continues to paint and accept portrait commissions full-time. She lives in St. John's.