Panayiotis Tetsis

Panayiotis Tetsis was born in 1925 on Hydra. His childhood and early teenage years were spent on the island. The beauty of its seascapes and the unique tints of light that fall on Hydra made, and still make, an indelible impression on his aesthetic sensibility.

Balancing discipline and emotion, Tetsis regards himself as a painter driven by the senses. His singularity, according to Koutsomallis, consists in his combination of "elegiac colour tones, compositional clarity and precision, thematic variety, a monumental character and freely, openly sketched contours".

A painter of colour and of the senses, Tetsis imprints his paintings with his own particular mark, irrespective of the thematic cycle to which they may belong. The compositional clarity of his work, its painterly quality, its openness in terms of contours, its expansive brushstrokes and fullness of colour are elements that offer the viewer a deep sense of mental euphoria and sensuous pleasure. Indeed, treatment of light and colour are the two main components of Tetsis work. Mainly an expressionist, his Hydra landscapes, seascapes and still-lifes treat light at different times of day and in different seasons. "Winter days are beautiful. When I go to Hydra for the weekend, there is a crystal clarity that doesn't exist in summer. The atmosphere is as sharp as though you had taken a scalpel and engraved it. The light comes in from the sides, the contrasts are sharper, the shade darker...."