By Paidashe Mandivengerei 

LOCAL legendary artist and Gallery Delta co-founder, Helen Lieros died this Wednesday.

Lieros one of Zimbabwe’s finest painters died aged 81.

The cause of her death has not been disclosed yet.

Lieros was born in 1940 to Greek parents and thrived in her search for the Greek African identity through her art.

In 1975, she founded Gallery Delta in Harare together with her husband, Derek Huggins.

At her gallery, she mentored over 50 young artists who went on to become successful painters.

Earlier this year, Lieros was honoured as one of the National Arts Merit Award Legends.

National Arts Council of Zimbabwe director, Nicholas Moyo said the nation had lost an arts administrator who made immense contributions to the sector.

“With an incredible knack for identifying and nurturing artistic talent, Helen regularly imparted her invaluable visual arts skills to many artists, assisting them to blossom into top-notch creatives,” he said.

“With the death of Helen, Zimbabwe has lost an exceptionally talented practitioner and arts administrator who contributed to the growth and development of the visual arts by putting the sector on the world’s artistic map. May her soul Rest In Peace,” he said.

Lieros’ art was collected globally by renowned galleries including the Paris Museum of African Arts, Wilfredo Lam Centre, Havana, the National Art Gallery of Zimbabwe, and many others.

In total, she painted about 15 enormous works in the church which included “The Creation”, “The Nativity”, “The Crucifixion”, “The Entombment of Christ”, “The Dormation of the Holy Mother”, “The Judgement”, “Homage to the Holy Fathers” and concluded in 2002 with “The Pantocrator”.

In 2008 carried out more work on other walls and worked on “The Massacre of Infants”, “The Trial of Christ”, and “The Procession of Soldier Saints” and “The Ephitafios” completed in 2009. The final recall was in 2013 when she executed “The Baptism of Christ”, “Christ Asleep in the Tempest” and “The Healing of the Blind Man”.