In recent days I attended a talk by the artist Helena Poto at the ArtOvation Hotel-Gallery in downtown Sarasota, and afterward, I had the opportunity to visit her exhibition Fruitscapes and Flower Portraits, which will be on view until May 6.
During the talk, the artist shared her journey and spoke about her creative process. In her own words, Poto’s paintings explore the “secret architecture” of things—a deep, hidden meaning that lies beyond the first glance. Through her work, she invites us to see fruits and flowers from a perspective closer to the world of dreams than to everyday reality.
Helena is an artist since her childhood when she started painting. She was born, raised, and educated between New Jersey and New York, and now she is based in Sarasota, Florida.
Her paintings made me reflect on the idea that reality and truth are not always the same. The inner truth of things is often different from what we see on the surface.
Poto’s style is marked by clean lines, vivid colors, pure forms, and unusual perspectives that move beyond simple representation.
What caught my attention the most was how she paints shadows: rich in color and form, they seem to have weight and presence. Her shadows are not always gray o black shapes; they often are colorful, they feel alive, vibrant, and claim their space in the visible world. In her work, fruits and flowers are portrayed not just as objects, but as expressions of life itself.
During previous conversations with her, Helena shared that her paintings seek to offer a sense of peace to humanity—a peace found through beauty, color, and the delicate balance of form. Her work also carries a mystical dimension, drawing inspiration particularly from Catholic religious icons, where simplicity and complexity coexist, and even the number of objects holds symbolic, sacred meaning.
To learn more about her work and her work, you can visit her website: https://helenapoto.com/
Jesús Miguel Soto
the present tense 
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