Helena van Emmerik-Finn

Pastel has been van Emmerik-Finn's main media for over forty years. She recently spent a lot of time painting en-plein air. Working outdoors has helped her so much in my studio work. Helena tries to recreate the envelope of light and color that lets my subjects exist in space. She is also working with oil, an exciting and informative addition for her.

The subject of Helena's paintings is often a spark of color, compositional movement or strong contrasting light, rather than the scene depicted. The preliminary drawing process has become very important to her. Once she has established this strong foundation in her work, she intuitively and quickly applies color.

Helena's family emigrated from Holland a few weeks before she was born and settled in upper Bucks County. She attended the Philadelphia College of Art where she studied graphic design, photography and film-making. After college, Helena traveled extensively, including back-backing and youth-hostelling through Europe, North Africa and India. She now live in Doylestown, Bucks County, with her husband, Bob.