Helen Lucas

In loving memory of Helen Lucas 1931 – 2023.

In the pages that follow, the reader will embark on a journey into the life and art of Helen Lucas. Her prolific career, spanning over five decades, has produced deeply personal insights into her life – from the darkly fearful and repressed figures of the formative years, to icons, mischievous angels, flowers and doves – each spiritually linked to the last.

To the many already familiar with Helen Lucas’ floral paintings of the last three decades, you’ll be anticipating the burst of life and colour she brings to the canvas. To those who have yet to learn about this remarkable artist and the special gift she possesses, you will easily come to understand how Helen Lucas has arrived today as one of Canada’s most loved and distinguished floral artists.

Miss Lucas has too rich a talent to dismiss lightly. She brings to her art an unabashed personal feeling that is all too rare in Canadian Art.
-Paul Duval, Toronto Telegram 1962

Helen Lucas has been producing a series of remarkable drawings, unique in the history of art… They are immediate, spontaneous, quickly executed, in which the crayon is linked to the soul.
-Sol Littman, Toronto Star 1974

Her acrylics and pastel drawings are linked to Georgia O’Keefe’s flower paintings, but they do not share O’Keefe’s austere and monumental vision. The Lucas works are warm-blooded and, despite their size, approachable.
-Nancy Beale, The Ottawa Citizen 1984

Helen’s flowers aren’t really flowers. They’re people, looking at you, talking to you, dancing and singing to you. They’re a presence that looks right at you.
-Helen Lucas’ Montreal Dealer,Jacques Bellefeuille, Galerie de Bellefeuille, Montreal 1986

20 dramatically colourful acrylic paintings of larger-than-life flowers…that attest to the light and joy and laughing….
-Alison Appelbe, Vancouver Courier 1989

The flower paintings say something about life, your own life, and your feeling about life in general. The proclamation of joy in the midst of our frightening world will not be missed by anyone with eyes to see and a heart to understand.
-Margaret Laurence, Canadian Author

Reviews – Helen Lucas