Helena Stockar
When I paint, I think mainly about the light. I also think about the colors, composition and the balanced combination of all these elements. My thoughts, my philosophy and my message are not solely about the subject matter but about perfecting the balance of these elements.
— Helena Stockar
Helena makes use of “lavear”, a coloring technique, originally used in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, which gives her work a translucent quality. This is especially evident in her watercolors and dramatic abstract oils. Much of her art concentrates on deep human emotions and interactions. Her figures are often caught in tragic-comic relationships or engaged in dialogue. They are strong individuals – some content, some lonely, some triumphant and some desperate, others cast in the role of on-lookers, helpless bystanders and innocent victims. Whether depicted alone or together, they echo a common theme – life is a challenge worth overcoming. Personal experiences are no longer personal in the hands of an artist such as Helena Stockar, rather they are universal.
Although Helena’s work is fueled by her turbulent past, it is not dominated by it. She never surrenders to it and nor does her art. This will and power to overcome the often insurmountable is reflected in her work as the dark colors nearly always yield to the whites, the yellows, the cobalt blues and the bright reds. As her life in America became more settled , Helena’s art became less tempestuous and more supported by a solid craftsmanship. The series of canvases called: “The Epos of Life” and “Our Universe” summarize her lifetime experiences. In her later works, she returns to landscape after a hiatus of more than thirty years. Simple items such as a sunset, the jar, a shipwreck or seashell become of artistic interest to her in her more tranquil later years.
​
Two themes are intertwined throughout Helena’s artistic like like golden threads - motherhood and religion. Though not an outwardly religious person, Helena’s Last Suppers, crucifixions and other religious subject matter are explored for their humanism and as homage to art history. As a mother and eventually grandmother, she often captured the motherhood in personal yet veiled snapshots.
Helena Stockar is a prolific artist who created over fourteen hundred oil canvases -- large, and small. She has painted over two thousand watercolors and made countless drawings. She exhibited in many solo and two-artists exhibits as well as dozens of group exhibits in New York City, New England, California, Pennsylvania, the Czech Republic and Scotland. Most of her exhibitions received media attention, as well as a few which included television coverage. For many years, she has been featured in Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who of American Women. Her paintings and drawings are in numerous private art collections around the world (London, New York, Paris, Prague, Edinburgh, Aberystwyth, Munich, Vienna, Toronto, San Francisco, Glasgow, Lyon, Edinburgh, Washington, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, San Diego, Providence and elsewhere), as well as institutions such as Johnston & Wells University and Hasboro Children’s Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island.
