About the Artist
Growing up on the beaches of Southern California, Helen has been sketching and painting for as long as she can remember. Noticing Helen's deep love of drawing as a child, her parents enrolled her in private oil painting lessons at the age of seven. This grew into a lifelong pursuit of the study of art.
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" It Started With Crayons... "
"I was one of those kids who just LOVED coloring books. So proud of my coloring skills.... staying in the lines, perfecting my shading.... and eventually working to recreate the textures of the cloth and "special effects" using an eraser over the crayon. Woe to any other kid who scribbled in my coloring books!
When I was 7, Mom sent me and my brother Paul to private oil painting lessons. I must say I was pretty bewildered by it all. The teacher was tiny.. she was smaller than I was! I wasn't sure whether I loved her or was terrified of her. The main thing that I remember is that during each class, the teacher would bring out our "snack". It would be either the good snack or the bad snack. The good snack was a single Milky Way Candy Bar sliced into eight pieces and parcelled out to us 8 students. The bad snack was on those days when she gave us each a fancy teacup with hot jello in it to drink! <shudder> ooo.. that was nasty.
But we did paint. I worked on a portrait of a horse and learned a lot about working with oil paints. (My brothers later used my "lovely" horse painting as a dartboard, which doesn't really say much for my impressive skills as an artist. Sigh.)
At home, I moved on to graphite and charcoal. I drew from the magazines around the house.My favorites were my parents' endless stacks of National Geographics. I particularly remember a "portrait" of a chimpanzee which I worked very hard on. I showed it to my teacher and she told me work on his hair more. I labored to draw practically every individual hair, and was so proud of the result. The other drawing I was especially proud of at this time was the face of a giraffe. She was so elegant. I still remember these drawings as if I were still that 10 year old, sitting on the couch, with my head buried in my sketchpad while the world moved on around me.
My dad bought me my first oils and easel when I was twelve. I was in heaven. Once I started into high school, I took as many art classes as they would allow me to take. In college, that's ALL I took.. painting painting painting. Once on my own, I took college art classes all over Southern California, and eventually won a Scholarship to the Laguna Beach School of Fine Art.
Having grown up on the beaches of Southern California, I loved roaming the area with my sketchbook and inks and rendering everything and everyone I saw. I often drew people in restaurants and left the drawing on the edge of their table as I passed by. Restaurant meals were often paid for with a drawing of the establishment.
At other times, I loaded up my tackle box which was perfect for paints, brushes, medium, and rags. I'd strap it into my backpack, along with a small lightweight table easel. No fancy French Easels for me in those days! I'd set off and find a perfect spot to paint. Precariously wedged into the rocks of a jetty, planted at the top of the beachside cliffs, or carefully balanced on a large stone in the middle of a mountain creek, I would paint and completely lose all track of time. Great days!"
* * * * *
Helen Zapata has been an Award Winning, Galleried Artist for over 40 years. Her paintings reside in Corporate, Public, and Private Collections throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe, and have been on display at the Los Angeles County Art Museum.
When I was 7, Mom sent me and my brother Paul to private oil painting lessons. I must say I was pretty bewildered by it all. The teacher was tiny.. she was smaller than I was! I wasn't sure whether I loved her or was terrified of her. The main thing that I remember is that during each class, the teacher would bring out our "snack". It would be either the good snack or the bad snack. The good snack was a single Milky Way Candy Bar sliced into eight pieces and parcelled out to us 8 students. The bad snack was on those days when she gave us each a fancy teacup with hot jello in it to drink! <shudder> ooo.. that was nasty.
But we did paint. I worked on a portrait of a horse and learned a lot about working with oil paints. (My brothers later used my "lovely" horse painting as a dartboard, which doesn't really say much for my impressive skills as an artist. Sigh.)
At home, I moved on to graphite and charcoal. I drew from the magazines around the house.My favorites were my parents' endless stacks of National Geographics. I particularly remember a "portrait" of a chimpanzee which I worked very hard on. I showed it to my teacher and she told me work on his hair more. I labored to draw practically every individual hair, and was so proud of the result. The other drawing I was especially proud of at this time was the face of a giraffe. She was so elegant. I still remember these drawings as if I were still that 10 year old, sitting on the couch, with my head buried in my sketchpad while the world moved on around me.
My dad bought me my first oils and easel when I was twelve. I was in heaven. Once I started into high school, I took as many art classes as they would allow me to take. In college, that's ALL I took.. painting painting painting. Once on my own, I took college art classes all over Southern California, and eventually won a Scholarship to the Laguna Beach School of Fine Art.
Having grown up on the beaches of Southern California, I loved roaming the area with my sketchbook and inks and rendering everything and everyone I saw. I often drew people in restaurants and left the drawing on the edge of their table as I passed by. Restaurant meals were often paid for with a drawing of the establishment.
At other times, I loaded up my tackle box which was perfect for paints, brushes, medium, and rags. I'd strap it into my backpack, along with a small lightweight table easel. No fancy French Easels for me in those days! I'd set off and find a perfect spot to paint. Precariously wedged into the rocks of a jetty, planted at the top of the beachside cliffs, or carefully balanced on a large stone in the middle of a mountain creek, I would paint and completely lose all track of time. Great days!"
* * * * *
Helen Zapata has been an Award Winning, Galleried Artist for over 40 years. Her paintings reside in Corporate, Public, and Private Collections throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe, and have been on display at the Los Angeles County Art Museum.