179 - The Carp Pond

The Carp Pond Oil on canvas, signed lower right H. 100 cm - W. 100 cm Note: Born in March 1946, Elena Hel'r is a French painter whose unique body of work lies at the intersection of Symbolist Expressionism and visionary art. Deeply marked by a painful childhood, she found in visual art—from a very early age—a source of resilience and a means of expressing her inner world. Her artistic journey is inextricably linked to sixteen years of travels around the world—notably in Mexico, where she studied and exhibited, in the United States (San Francisco, St. Louis), and in India—journeys that enriched her imagination and expanded her palette. Upon her return to France, she made her debut in the art auction scene in the 1990s, with notable exhibitions in Lyon and along the French Riviera. Her style, characterized by a constant tension between light and shadow (from yin to yang), dense compositions, and a strong dreamlike quality, has evolved over the decades toward a more epic and textured abstraction. Rejecting imposed narratives, she conceives each of her paintings as an intimate enigma inviting the viewer to weave their own story.