Born in Moscow in 1946, Helen Anikst was exposed to a vast range of experiences, as her parents were hydrogeologists who traveled all over the world. Anikst discovered her passion for art at nine years old in Peking, China when she began sculpting. After that trip, Anikst and her family returned to the Ural Mountains where she began studying sketching, drawing, and painting. It was this background that led her to study art at Moscow's Surikov Institute. Her extensive study of the liberal and fine arts there convinced her that her interest was broader than just painting, and she entered the art program at the Moscow Cinematography Institute in 1964. She received her degree in 1970 and began working for the Gorky Cinema Studios.

The evolution of Anikst’s art into the world of professional painting began with the birth of her son in 1972, when she acknowledged her amazement at the “tiny work of art” that was her son, and translated it into her talent for miniature painting. She and her husband eventually moved to London, where Anikst expresses herself primarily through the genres of landscapes and still lifes.