Sacramento River, 1981.

Gregory Kondos creates thickly painted landscapes known for their buttery spread of bright, warm color. Even the cool tones of blue in a Kondos painting are heated, evoking sun-warmed expanses of summer sky and water. The intensity of color and heat is common in Sacramento, where he painted and taught for over 50 years.

In his use of high-keyed color and broad paint handling Kondos shows an affinity to artists such as Roland Petersen, Raimonds Staprans, and Wayne Thiebaud, with whom he shared an abiding friendship. Unique to Kondos, however, is his attention to subject. Arguably, Petersen and Staprans overtly generalize their landscapes, while Thiebaud’s landscape forays were about pattern and its role in establishing illusion. Kondos’s compositions are balanced in order to express not only the tranquility of the scene, but also the pleasure of solitary communion with nature.

LOOK FOR: Slight evidence of human presence in the landscape from the smoke plume and road sign.