Telemachos Kanthos’ long sojourns in his birthplace of Alona bound him irrevocably to the mountain landscape of Cyprus. Kanthos was taught by his contact with the landscape. He studied light and colour, trying to capture them with his painting. Starting with Impressionism and then with the influence of Cézanne, he attained a very personal, experiential style of painting.

In his landscapes, Kanthos proved to be especially lyrical and built up his compositions with moderation, rhythm and balance. He moved away from this ‘euphoric’ style of painting, which sings of the landscape with colour, after 1974, only to return to it again in 1979 with his Variations from a Courtyard series of paintings. By then a pensioner and free of all obligations, Kanthos often stayed in Alona, where he devoted himself to painting the landscape and the colours.

The numerous landscapes the artist created between 1980 and 1993 constitute a stylistically distinct cycle. Compared to his previous landscape work, they display greater freedom, an expressionist mood and an immediacy of style. His brushstroke is more gestural, and the role of colour is enhanced. 

This painting Blossoming Trees is dated to 1986. It is marked, as are most of his landscapes, by a diagonal organisation, a feature which lends it movement and drive. It opens at the bottom right with an uphill, curving road and, following the perspective of a frog, the painter conveyed the sense of the landscape’s incline. The brushstrokes are lavish and quick, while some are exceptionally thick and gloppy. They move in a linear direction, lending the work a dimension of openness. Dominating the composition are tones ranging from white to grey-lilac, which converse with the greens and orange-browns. In this oil painting we observe schematisation and abstraction. It is obvious that the painter did not wish to convey this particular landscape descriptively, but rather to inspire in us the sense of bliss he felt at the sight of nature in bloom.