Helen (Lenny) Copeland was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She studied from age thirteen to eighteen with a group of scholarship students at the Carnegie Institute. She attended Skidmore College in Sarasota Springs, New York, graduating with honors with a Bachelor of Science in Art History, Studio Art and Science. In 1951 she studied with other scholarship students at Yale University Summer School in Norfolk, Connecticut where visiting artists included Rockwell Kent, Ben Shahn and Maholy Nagy. During her college years, she was particularly interested in studying the painting of Paul Cézanne and has continued a life-long devotion to his work. Other French painters admired include Pissarro, Monet and Van Gogh. Painting trips to France, especially the Provence region, have been a result of her love of France and the plein-aire painting of the Impressionists. She has also been influenced by American painters such as Childe Hassam and Ernest Lawson. Recently, she has worked with contemporary painter John Teralac in Rockport, Massachusetts and also in the nearby area of Gloucester.
Lenny has had numerous one-person shows in Columbus, Ohio over the past 30 years and has placed over 300 paintings in private collections. Keny Galleries in Columbus has represented her since 1983. Impressionism and Post-Impressionism as well as plein-aire painting have been strong influences upon her art.
She has recently experimented in watercolor mono-types and pastels and has been painting on Sanibel Island in Florida where she and her husband spend the Winter.
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