What a delight it was to discover the amazing gallery of Tassos Kouris ! His wonderfully varied artwork is exemplary and holds the style of a true Greek citizen.

Tassos, a Visionary in more ways than one, is not only a brilliant artist, but he is also Head of the Ophthalmic Surgery Department of one the bigger hospitals in Athens - which means he is able to improve, or even bring sight, to those suffering from visual problems. This means they, too, can appreciate beautiful things in life - such a precious gift, and what a privilege to have someone of his calibre here amongst us at dA!

The Interview

1. How long have you been doing art?

Since my early childhood I tried to put in paper scenes and themes real and imaginary, as I suppose most children do… But the exclamations and praise of my friends and teachers convinced me that I sketched well, rather above normal for my age level.

Even then the fantastic realism themes were the main part of my childish production. That and Walt Disney characters, which I could sketch with great ease to the wonder of my fellow pupils.

2. What, or who, got you started and influenced your work?

I had, and still have btw a close friend in school, an excellent student and also a fast and good sketcher (Now a professor in informatics, in Toronto University, Canada). I think that one tried to surpass the other in sketches and small paintings… That was good for me…

As for what influenced me…I could look to a picture, preferably a fantastic theme for a very long time, looking at the perspective, the time frame of the image, the before and the after, the hidden meanings, the picture not as a stationary object but as an image that had ever changing meanings… (I still do that btw.. I can look to the Art published in DA for hours, when I have the time, this commodity that is ever in shortage)

3. Do you have any formal training as an artist?

Well… You have to keep in mind that after WW2 Corfu (the Greek island, were I was born and raised) was, (in fact all Greece was) very poor and trying to rebuild her dilapidated former glory in Music (Opera especially) and Art in general… To have ambition to have Painting as a solo profession at that time was a ticket to poverty… My father, a man with good education in Music (Maybe the best baritone the island of Corfu produced) did not have art as a profession, and as a pro-education but practical man, wanted his son to have a profession that would always put bread on his table..

So for him painting was to be my lover, but Medicine my wife… I went to an Art school we had then in Corfu, that worked in the afternoons while in the mornings we attended normal school education… There I learned the discipline of classical drawing by teachers to whom I am still grateful… And nothing more, not color, not freedom of expression… After school, I went to Athens to be a Doctor… I finished medical school with most excellent grades (sketching all the time) and decided to specialize in Ophthalmology to serve Vision… Vision that in turn can be used to appreciate ART… And during my studies in Medicine, I had my first book on Magritte, then Ernst and then DALI…

I found my paradise… Color for me was then an absolute necessity… I started reading books on painting techniques, mediums, oil colors, watercolors etc… I self educated myself doing 2 paintings in the size of the originals… One of Greco and another of Velásquez's , mimicking their way of using colors and brushes and then I started my own oil paintings…

Wild things at first, paintings overloaded with symbolisms and meanings as if there would not be another painting…

Later I calmed down, one theme one idea at a time… I started exhibiting to the premier Gallery of Greece, at that time, ZYGOS… Most of my paintings were sold immediately…

Thinking that all my painting life was in front of me, I even had not photographed each painting that was sold… The “catalogue résonnais” was far from my mind.. Pity, many - many paintings are now lost to me and I try to remember the owners so I can take a snapshot of them … The recklessness of youth!

4. What software do you normally use for preparing a work for display on the internet?

CS3.

5. Do you have a preference for the type of picture you like to create?

The whole image comes instantaneously to my mind… As a whole. As a real Dreamscape… Then starts the refinement, but not the betrayal of the initial idea… The backdrop (usually my beloved Corfu), the composition, the meticulous under painting, the main painting and last, the lights…

6. Can you give a brief overview of the various techniques you use?

In oil paintings, classical almost Flemish, execution “lege artis”;
In watercolor experimenting new methods;
In sketching mostly graphite and carbon.

7. What sort of things inspire your artwork?

Visual and mental inputs… When an image comes I don’t question it… I put it on paper as a fast sketch, and if the next day it still talks to me then the adventure, small or big, starts…

8. Do you have any advice for aspiring artists?

Learn the essential from your teachers, then open your wings… Don’t be a slave of your teacher and don’t reject him either… Use him as a step, so you can climb toward your own imagination…

And be kind in your critique to other artists… A bravo tends to push an artist upwards, if he is really honest in his work..

9. Do you have any future plans for diversifying your artwork?

My future plans are to find time for painting, because Hippocrates holds the muse by the neck…

Medicine is a very demanding wife and Art, my eternal mistress suffers lately…

10. Is there anything else you'd like to add about what you do?

Art is a need for creation… There is not Parthenogenesis in Art… But advances, variations, oppositions, diversifications…

There are shining minds and talents, but even the little stars have their merit in the constellation of Art.

Here's a Selection from Tassos's gallery

I could go on and on, but... I would like to invite you to take a look at his complete gallery HERE

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_{NOTE: and have teamed up to carry out interviews from now on, as Deb is very involved with RATF and has not been able to carry on with the things she had started to do in some of her other dedicated areas. We thought we would see how this works and may open up a new account just for this purpose at some point.}