Helena Gottlieb

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Born in Siberia to Jewish-Polish parents who sought refuge in the Soviet Union during the Second World War, Helena Gottlieb's life has been shaped by resilience, compassion, and a deep appreciation for the beauty found in everyday experience. Trained as a physician in Poland, she later emigrated to the United States, where she devoted more than four decades to pediatric medicine, caring for generations of families through her practice on Staten Island.

Remarkably, Gottlieb began painting only in her sixties. Entirely self-taught, she first explored watercolor before turning to oil painting, developing an intuitive and highly personal visual language. Her works are inspired by changing seasons, village life, gardens, landscapes, and children at play—subjects that reflect both her lifelong attentiveness to people and her enduring connection to nature.

Characterized by vibrant color, expressive brushwork, and an emphasis on atmosphere over strict realism, Gottlieb's paintings celebrate memory, family, and the quiet joys of ordinary life. Working outside academic traditions, she has created a body of work that is both deeply personal and universally accessible, guided by her belief that beauty can always be found in the world around us.

Helena Gottlieb has exhibited her work in Staten Island and Manhattan and continues to paint as a reflection of a life spent observing, caring for, and finding wonder in the everyday.