Helen Schargo

My name is Helena Schargo and I was born in the Ore Mountains. I come from Kovařská and I'm still an "Oremountains girl."

I painted my first picture in elementary school on a canvas sheet hammered with nails into a piece of wood. I enjoyed painting. I learned to paint by myself, only by observation. I had my first solo exhibition of paintings many years later in Karlovy Vary, and it was presented by the writer and former dissident Jindřich Konečný.

Coincidence wanted it, and the journey brought me to the Prague studio of Tomáš Kubík, a graduate of AVU, a hyperrealist. He became my great teacher. It was he who taught me the old procedures and techniques in painting, as well as admiration for figural creation.

While wandering around Prague, one day I found myself in a gallery of art dolls. It was a charming world, even though I didn't play with dolls much as a child, so these were worth it. It occurred to me that I could try to create a horse. I painted the fabric with art nouveau motifs and then used it as a cut to make a textile horse. Nowhere have I met a textile horse that had realistic shapes. That was a challenge. The horses were in my heart and now began to be born under my hands. In short, horses were everywhere you looked.

 In 2014, I organized the thematic exhibition Year of the Horse in Václav Havel's Ostrov Orangery. The year 2014 was the real Chinese year of the Horse. That year I returned to live horses. In the last year, I also started sewing horses on a stick known as Hobby Horse. I create each horse for many hours and days and try to make it not only look good, but also meet the criteria for Hobbyhorsing competitions. I wish that my work brings joy, originality and light to everyone.