A Saskatchewan native, Helen Lucas was raised in a devout Greek Orthodox family. After graduating 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. Though her first show received positive reviews, she was directed by the Greek Church to stop her artistic endeavors. Her early work of Greek Orthodox icons and the Virgin Mary were dark in nature, referencing her struggle while attempting to abandon her religious upbringing. During these formative years, Lucas’ dark artwork can also be linked to the unhappiness in her twenty-year marriage to her first husband. Lucas explains that during this period she "had no feeling for colour."
Lucas’ mature work is best known for large canvases of brightly coloured flowers, though while teaching at Sheridan College in Oakville from 1973 to 1979, she produced a series of political black and white pieces. Her work is exhibited and collected in Canada and internationally. Lucas has published drawings and text in several newspapers, magazines, and journals, and has been an active participant in Canadian women’s studies projects. She continues to paint at her studio in King Township, Ontario, where she currently resides.
