Helga Ohannesian

Knock on Wood. The orange bird.

2021

At an early age, I knew my calling was that of an artist. In school, my teachers would call me “Helga the dreamer”; I would rather look at the interplay of light and shadow under the trees than play with the other children during recess. Interior design attracted me, but post-war Germany would not allow females into a then male-dominated field, leaving me to become a dental assistant. In 1962 I immigrated to the United States and settled in California. Immediately I started to attend art workshops and classes. Over the years, I have studied with many artists, including Ralph Hasenbein, Ruth Basler-Burr and Margot Lennartz. My home garden became my “artistic expressions”. In my minds-eye, I was “seeing” and painting – shades of different colors in a field, greens in a park, reflections on water, the flow of a steam or the vastness of the sky. When the time was right the easel was set up again and my career as a painter took off. My subject: nature; its serenity, beauty, spirituality and mysticism. My style: a cross between realism and impressionism. My medium: oil paint. I have exhibited my work in numerous shows. I do not paint to make statements about societal ills or my most inner feelings about life. I paint the beauty I see around me and hope each work speaks to the viewer without the need for a lesson-plan or manual, and make the viewer smile.