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About Artist:
Vangelis was born in 1953 in Greece in the island of Crete, known to be a berth for artists for millenniums. His first exposure to art came at a very early age when he became the apprentice of a renowned local artist. It was during this time that Vangelis learned to appreciate and love art. As a young adult he entered the business world and formed as well as managed one of Greece's most successful design firms, Monaco. He migrated to the United States where he met his wife and muse, Ioanna, and resides in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, where the Florida warmth reminds him of his native Crete. It is here that Vangelis re-encountered his childhood passion, the artists' brush. He started painting in oil and his early work was consumed by his passion for the beauty of the Greek islands and the Mediterranean Sea. Vangelis signed all this volume of early work with the name "Van Greco". During this period he concentrated in commissioned works for clients overseas. As a result his work adorned many international private collections. In 1995, during a holiday visit to Crete Vangelis was so overwhelmed by the richness and variety of the Cretan flowers and upon his return to The United States started creating what is destined to become the most prolific collection of oil paintings of flowers the art world has ever seen. Flowers will never be seen the same way again. This dazzling collection, masterfully brilliant with color, besides expressing intangible emotional concepts or ever- greater displays of spiritual and symbolic significance, is a dramatic testament to the almost surreal beauty of flowers. Roses, gardenias, tulips, poppies, zinnias, daisies and anemones have given us a living, but we never really looked closely at what gave them life. By focusing on their purpose - to captivate, to create - Vangelis elevates the flower from decoration to a lesson of life. Flowers reveal their most intimate crevices through Vangelis's paintings. We are seduced by the flowers' exquisite beauty, intoxicated by the depth of color and tingled by the tactile sensuality of the flowers' inner self and are unfolded in heroic terms, oversized and isolated in the painting and explored for their design and structure, not as strictly botanical specimens or decorative items. For many years Vangelis dreamt of opening someday his own museum dedicated to his flowers and as a consequence deprived us all from viewing his art. Fortunately, he has recently decided to exhibit his work and as expected, his paintings, are almost instantly acquired by galleries and private collectors alike.
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