Helen Lucas

Helen Geatros was born on August 25, 1931.[https://www.newmarkettoday.ca/obituaries/lucas-helen-billie-7908315 Lucas, Helen Billie][https://www.echovita.com/ca/obituaries/on/newmarket/helen-lucas-17275990 Helen Billie Lucas] She was raised in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, the eldest daughter of parents who had emigrated from Greece. When she was six weeks old her family moved to Saskatchewan to operate the Ritz Hotel. She was never encouraged by her family to do art as they were preoccupied with establishing a new life and a good living in Saskatchewan. The impact of traditional religious observance on her day-to-day life resulted in good manners. After high school Lucas studied pre-medicine for a year before moving to Toronto to study at the Ontario College of Art, where she began to paint. Her parents encouraged this, financially supporting her through college. Though her first show received some positive reviews, she says she was advised by the Greek Church to reduce her artistic endeavours in order to make time for her first love, her devotion to religious studies.{{cite news |last=Mawhinney |first=Jannice |title=Artist discovers the joy of painting |work=Toronto Star |date=November 1, 1997}}{{cite journal |last=Allen |first=Jocelyn |title=Helen Lucas: Her Journey -- Our Journey |journal=Canadian Woman Studies |date=1996 |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=147–148 |url=http://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/viewFile/12143/11226 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180719233822/https://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/viewFile/12143/11226 |archive-date=July 19, 2018 |access-date=December 2, 2023}}{{cite magazine |last=Iaboni |first=Sue |title=Two King Artists with Huge Canvases and Even Bigger Hearts |url=http://kingmosaic.ca/pdf/2013/03/201303-KingMosaic-Page-FULL-sm.pdf |accessdate=December 2, 2023 |magazine=King MOSAiC |publisher=Arts Society King |date=Spring 2013 |volume=II |issue=2 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150216120708/http://kingmosaic.ca/pdf/2013/03/201303-KingMosaic-Page-FULL-sm.pdf |archivedate=February 16, 2015}}

{{quotebox |author=Helen Lucas |width=25% |source={{Cite web |url=http://helenlucas.com/gallery/ |title=Gallery |website=helenlucas.com |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220212133841/http://helenlucas.com/gallery/ |archive-date=February 12, 2022 |access-date=December 2, 2023}}|"I will always be drawn to the beauty and the courage of the flower. I am captivated by it. Flowers, more than anything else, are so life enforcing. I have come to truly believe in the healing powers of flowers and their colors in our lives and in our surroundings. I hope each of my paintings will be a continual reminder of the positive qualities that each flower represents."}}

Lucas taught at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario, as Drawing and Painting Master from 1973 to 1979. While there, she produced a series of political black and white pieces and worked alongside Shelagh Wilkinson, co-founder of Canadian Woman Studies.{{cite journal |last=Lynn |first=Marion |title=Shelagh Brenda Wilkinson, September 18, 1928-November 16, 2011: Such a long journey |journal=Canadian Woman Studies |date=2011 |volume=29 |issue=1–2 |page=77 |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/b7cf6d717046bada0fffeed7fc6af812/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=44042 |url-status=live |archive-date=December 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202170646/https://www.proquest.com/openview/b7cf6d717046bada0fffeed7fc6af812/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=44042 |access-date=December 2, 2023}}{{cite journal |last=Ricciutelli |first=Luciana| title=Marion Lynn and Shelagh Wilkinson: An interview with the CWS/cf founders |journal=Canadian Woman Studies |date=2011 |volume=29 |issue=1–2 |page=86 |url=http://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/view/35043/0 |access-date=1 May 2016}}

Lucas' work is best known for large canvases devoted to colourful flowers, but earlier sketches and paintings explored icons of the Greek Orthodox Church, the Virgin Mary, and female sexuality.{{cite book|editor1-last=Lindley|editor1-first=Susan Hill|editor2-last=Stebner|editor2-first=Eleanor J. |title=The Westminster handbook to women in American religious history |date=2008 |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |location=Louisville, KY |isbn=9780664224547 |page=135 |edition=1st |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R4hLAtDBHskC&q=helen+lucas+artist+biography&pg=PA135 |accessdate=December 2, 2023}} The dark nature reflected in Lucas' work during this period has been linked to her deep religious faith, the turmoil of learning to live away from her family in Saskatoon, her guilt at her parents’ financial sacrifice for her education, and the unhappiness she experienced during her 20-year marriage to her first husband.{{cite news |last=Kritzwiser |first=Kay |title=Artist Helen Lucas says it with flowers |work=The Globe and Mail |date=November 7, 1980}} Lucas explains that during this period she "had no feeling for colour." The thematic transition of Lucas' work was chronicled in a film by Donna Davey, Helen Lucas: Her Journey -- Our Journey, which won the Gold Plaque for Best Documentary at the Chicago International Film Festival.{{cite web |title=Inventory of the Donna Davey fonds |url=http://archivesfa.library.yorku.ca/fonds/ON00370-f0000506.htm |website=York University Libraries |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202171432/https://archivesfa.library.yorku.ca/fonds/ON00370-f0000506.htm |archive-date=December 2, 2023 |accessdate=December 2, 2023}}{{cite news |last=Trueman| first=Peter |title=Flower Power Why Lucas documentary is the kind of show CBC should invest in |newspaper=Toronto Star |date=March 30, 1996}} The film included an interview with her friend, Margaret Laurence. Lucas's drawings were included in Laurence's book, A Christmas Birthday Story (New York and Toronto, 1980). Laurence described Lucas' contributions as "joyous, beautiful and wise."{{cite book |last=Xiques |first=Donez |title=Margaret Laurence the making of a writer |date=2005 |publisher=Dundurn Press |location=Toronto, Ontario, Canada |isbn=9781459714694 |page=[https://archive.org/details/margaretlaurence0000xiqu/page/253 253]|url=https://archive.org/details/margaretlaurence0000xiqu|url-access=registration |quote=Thus, by a curious coincidence, this little story written in Vancouver in 1959 became Margaret Laurence's last publish work when it appeared in 1980 with its illustrations by Helen Lucas. |access-date=December 3, 2023}}

In addition to delivering lectures on women in the arts, Lucas appeared on radio and television from the 1970s to the 1990s.{{cite web |title=Helen Lucas' Biography |url=http://helenlucas.com/about/biography/ |website=helenlucas.com |url-status=live |archive-date=December 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231203110131/http://helenlucas.com/about/biography/ |accessdate=December 3, 2023}} She has exhibited her art in Canada, the United States, Europe, Africa and Japan. Several works were acquired by public collections in Canada and by private international collections. Lucas has published drawings and text in several newspapers, magazines, and journals, and she has been an active participant in Canadian women studies projects.

Lucas lived in King Township, Ontario where she lived with her second husband, Derek Fuller, until his death in 1996.{{cite news |title=A talent in bloom |publisher=Toronto Star |date=4 June 2005}} She died on November 27, 2023, at the age of 92.{{cite web| url=https://www.legacy.com/ca/obituaries/theglobeandmail/name/helen-lucas-obituary?id=53730410 |title=Helen Lucas |work=The Globe and Mail |via=Legacy.com |access-date=December 3, 2023}}

In 2012 she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, and was the recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree by York University in 1991.{{cite web|title=Honorary Degree Recipients |url=http://secretariat.info.yorku.ca/senate/sub-committee-on-honorary-degrees-and-ceremonials/honorary-degree-recipients/#L |website=University Secretariat |publisher=York University |accessdate=1 May 2016 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150318112748/http://secretariat.info.yorku.ca/senate/sub-committee-on-honorary-degrees-and-ceremonials/honorary-degree-recipients/ |archivedate=18 March 2015 }}

Lucas authored {{cite book|title=Angelica|date=1973|publisher=Kakabeka Pub. Co|location=Toronto|pages=71|oclc=841465}} As well as {{cite book|title=This is my beloved--sometimes|date=1981|publisher=Proclaim|location=[Toronto]|isbn=9780919415003|oclc=15918307}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [http://www.yorku.ca/yul/gazette/past/archive/120298/current.htm Helen Lucas artwork given to York University, 1998]
• [https://atom.library.yorku.ca/index.php/helen-lucas-fonds Helen Lucas archives] are held at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University Libraries, Toronto, Ontario

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Category:1931 births

Category:2023 deaths

Category:Canadian women painters

Category:Canadian people of Greek descent

Category:Artists from Saskatchewan

Category:OCAD University alumni

Category:People from Weyburn

Category:Academic staff of Sheridan College

Category:20th-century Canadian women artists

Category:21st-century Canadian women artists