Mountain Arts Network & Gallery
TRIBUTE TO HELGA BATMAN-KOPLIN
Photo by Dean Lent - Photographer
“RIP Helga Batman-Koplin. One of the good ones from Mountain Arts Gallery. Always a smile and an engaging story and your art was so colorful and tongue in cheek and joyful. And it was an honor to have a couple of your paintings in my movie.”
TRIBUTE TO HELGA BATMAN-KOPLIN
by Lisa Cook
Beloved mountain artist Helga Batman-Koplin passed away Saturday, March 22, 2025. Close to a year ago, Helga suffered a debilitating stroke and was confined to a bed with some paralysis. She was a favorite with the staff at her care center. Her spirited conversations and sometimes bawdy humor kept the staff highly entertained. She was an honored member of Mountain Arts Network and Gallery.
Helga Batman-Koplin was born and raised in Lorrach, Germany, where she began painting as a child. She was given a gift from her parents of a small box of watercolors and some crayons when she was 5 years of age. This was the impetus which inspired her artistic passion and commitment. She received a degree from the University of Mainz in Interpretation and Translation in French and English in 1959.
That same year Batman-Koplin immigrated to the United States but found French and English translators in little demand. She supported herself as a bank teller while continuing to paint. By 1970 she was working and studying in the art departments of Cypress College (Orange County) and California State University, Long Beach. Later she took additional classes in impressionist manner painting, life drawing and design with such noted Southern California artists as Hal Reed, Joseph Mendez, Mildred Walker, Kanya Bugreeff and Ted Goerschner. She began participating in juried shows.
As an accomplished painter, Batman-Koplin has received numerous Best in Show and 1st Place Awards. Among her awards was the Palos Verdes Art Center, Artist’s Open Group, Lake Arrowhead Art & Wine Festival, Fine Arts Institute, Redlands and San Bernardino Valley National Orange Show, Citrus Category. In 2000 she received a Winsor & Newton Award from the Redlands Arts Association, Miniature Show.
Her work has been purchased by many corporate and private collectors. Redlands Community Hospital and the County of San Bernardino have included her work as part of their permanent art collections. She was featured artist in the “County Heritage Show” and her work was purchased and now hangs in the Cultural Affairs Office in San Bernardino County.
In 1990 Batman-Koplin moved into her vacation home in Lake Arrowhead and started exhibiting her work around the county. Since then she was a featured artist in several exhibitions.
In 1995 a one-person show was held in Lake Arrowhead at Gallery Rodeo. Batman-Koplin was one of the exhibiting artists in “Art Alive” 1998, 1999 and 2000 at the Riverside Art Museum, at UCLA Fine Art & Dining in 2000, the Arts Council of San Bernardino County, the Fine Arts Institute in Redlands and the 31st annual national Palm Springs Desert Museum show in 2000.
Helga lost her home and everything in it in the 2003 Old Fire. All of her paintings were lost and she was forced to start anew. She is survived by her two children Kay Gobelin and Greg Batman. Her paintings and prints are currently exhibited for sale at the Mountain Arts Gallery in the Lake Arrowhead Village.
Lisa Cook
Helga Batman-Koplin
contact: (909) 336-5785
e-mail: batmum1@yahoo.com | http://www.batman-koplin.com
Helga Batman-Koplin studied art first at Cypress College and California State University in Long Beach. Previously she earned a degree in Linguistics from the University of Mainz, Mainz,Germany.
Furthering her love of art, she studied oil painting with a number of well known California artists. From 2003 to 2007 she exhibited at the Art-A-Fair in Laguna Beach, CA during the summer art festival.
Subsequently she taught for 10 years oil and water color painting during the summer program at the UCLA Conference Center in Lake Arrowhead. CA. She also has been teaching oil and acrylic painting for 25 years to date.
She has demonstrated painting at Southern California Art Associations, held workshops and has juried a number of shows. Her work has been purchased by many corporate and private collectors.
Currently her work may be viewed at the "Mountain Arts Gallery", Lake Arrowhead Village, Lake Arrowhead, CA 92352 and at "Artisan's ETC" , 646 Pine Knot, Big Bear Lake, CA 92315.
Helga teaches all levels of oil and acrylic painting at the Mountain Arts Network-Community Arts Center in Lake Arrowhead Village Space R120. For more information about classes, as well as workshops, demonstrations, jurying of shows or to purchase her paintings, contact: (909) 336-5785, e-mail: batmum1@yahoo.com, Web site: http://www.batman-koplin.com
Roses in Vase with Grapes
Shopping Lake Arrowhead Village
VW Bus and Beach scene
