2020 was the year of Covid and filled with much darkness for most of the world. When the vaccine was announced, Manolis saw our world being filled with sunshine. The light was coming in after a period of darkness.
He has painted one or two yellow paintings yearly to celebrate Summer Solstice. The sun has always held a very special meaning for Manolis, both metaphorically and physically. And, he loves living in the Sunshine State- Florida!
This painting is a good example of Manolis' use of watercolor techniques to paint with acrylic paint.
Manolis, is an American abstract expressionist artist who paints in both watercolors and acrylics on canvas. He studied for 30 years under the tutelage of world renown colorist and former student of Hans Hofman, Wolf Kahn (1927-2020).
Donald Kuspit, a leading art critic, would go on to write about Manolis, "When it comes to Color, and the intellectual pursuit of ‘Communicating Through Color,’ Wassily Kandinsky’s long-awaited heir-to-be is J. Steven Manolis, whose works signal an ebullient 21st-century renaissance of the long-absent glories of Abstract Expressionism.”