Four years after her death the
Orlando Sentinel, June 25, 1987,
reviewing an exhibit of her work
noted: “Stockwell’s obsession with
capturing Florida’s pure, swampy
landscape during this century was
a legend in her native DeLand,
which followed her to Eustis. For
her, there was never enough time
to paint it all, the lakes before town
houses replaced shacks, the mosscovered
trees before they replaced
with high-rises. The all-consuming
desire to preserve her beloved
Florida with smears of color on
canvases yielded thousands of
paintings and numerous awards for
the veteran artist.”
Helen Protas, Sarasota. Self-portrait,
Voodoo. Oil on board, 22 x 26 inches.
Helen Protas, the wife of artist
Jay Protas, was known for her, ”gay
and sometimes humorous modern
abstractions.” Her work was noted
in Art News, Art Digest, Who’s Who
in the South and Southwest and
Who’s Who of American Women. By
1951 she had accumulated awards
in the National Oil and Watercolor
Show, National Watercolor Show, and
the Florida statewide experimental
show, sponsored by the Sarasota
Art Association. Protas exhibited
at the Ringling Museum, the Gulf
Coast Gallery, Sarasota, and the
National Academy of Design. A
Canadian, Helen and her husband
Jay were killed on the way back to
Helen’s home in Hamilton, Ontario
when their car blew a tire, crossed
the median on the New York State
Thruway and was hit by an oncoming
truck. Helen, a charter member of
Sarasota’s Petticoat Painters, was
forty-five.
Paul Laessle, Miami. Self Portrait, oil on
canvas, 20 by 24 inches.
Paul Laessle graduated from the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
in 1935, wining the prestigious
Cresson Scholarship for travel in
Europe. He came from an artistic
family with his mother, Mary
Middleton Laessle, a professional
sculptor and portrait painter, and his
father, Albert Laessle, internationally
known as a sculptor and a member
of the National Academy of Design.
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